Senate advances bill to speed up projects from gas pipelines to clean energy

Key environmental groups come out against bipartisan Baaja bill over fears it could spur datacenters and ICE jails

It’s a bill that would make it easier to build big infrastructure projects in America – everything from fossil fuel pipelines to transmission lines that would add more clean energy to the grid. And it would roll back environmental and social protections to achieve this goal. That is why climate advocates are torn over the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs act (Baaja), which was scheduled for an initial procedural Senate vote on Monday.

The Senate voted on Monday to open debate on Baaja in the first of several procedural votes. Senators voted 73 to 25 on the cloture motion, which did not result in the bill being passed, but pushed it another step forward.