COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sen. Jon Husted hosted a permitting reform roundtable in Columbus on Friday with Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming, bringing together state lawmakers, regulators and Ohio energy, manufacturing and business leaders.
Husted’s office said a federal environmental review can take up to a decade, with projects missing deadlines and exhausting budgets before construction begins, at a time when growing energy use is adding demand to Ohio’s grid.
“Ohio’s economy is growing, and the grid has to keep up. We can’t build Ohio’s energy future and lower costs for working families if it takes up to a decade just to get a permit. I was glad to bring my friend Sen. Barrasso to Columbus to hear directly from the people who build, power and regulate energy in Ohio. We’re also fighting to make sure data centers pay for their own energy so working families aren’t stuck footing the bill for Big Tech,” Husted said.
“America needs to build better, faster, cheaper, and smarter. Right now, critical energy projects spend years trapped in the regulatory penalty box. Senator Husted’s roundtable today underscored how essential permitting reform is to producing more American energy and lowering prices for American families. Senator Husted has led the way in the Senate with thoughtful legislation that will protect families from increased electricity rates. The Senate has also negotiated bipartisan permitting legislation. We need to pass these reforms this year. American families cannot afford to wait,” Barrasso said.
Husted serves on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and has worked with its chairman, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, on permitting legislation. His bills include the New Source Review Permitting Act, which would clarify Clean Air Act permitting requirements so manufacturers and energy producers can improve efficiency, upgrade equipment and complete pollution control projects; the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act of 2026, which would streamline federal permitting and reduce delays from litigation and overlapping reviews; and the Water Authority and Timely Environmental Review Act, or WATER Act, aimed at streamlining permitting for water projects.
His Ratepayer Protection Act would make large new data centers pay for their own energy costs.
Participants also discussed the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, S. 5653, introduced Sept. 30 by Capito with Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. The bill is expected to receive a Senate vote after the October state work period. According to Husted’s office, the bill would set deadlines for federal reviews — environmental assessments within one year and full environmental impact statements within two years — require claims under the National Environmental Policy Act to be filed within 150 days, bar federal agencies from pulling or suspending a valid permit except under specific conditions, require data centers using 20 megawatts or more to cover their own energy costs, and leave Ohio in control of siting transmission lines and setting rates for data centers. Participants also discussed adding grid capacity by upgrading existing power lines.
The data center cost question is also moving through Ohio’s own regulatory cases. J News Network has reported on the federal filing covering the proposed data center campus at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, where about 9,570 megawatts of new data center demand is proposed, and the Ohio Power Siting Board will hold a public hearing Oct. 27 in Jackson on the 765-kilovolt Baku-Gavin transmission line proposed to feed that campus.
The full text of S. 5653 is available at Congress.gov.
