What's in the Senate permitting bill

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Written By Nikki Chiappa

A section-by-section guide to the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, the permitting deal released September 30, 2026. Filter by energy type, reform category, bill title, or committee, then open any section for context, the laws it amends, and the earlier bills it draws from.

For more of EPIC's research on permitting, check out our Substack, Permit Me To Explain.

 

⚠️ A Note on Accuracy In the interest of time, we used AI to generate summaries of each provision of this bill. In the coming weeks, we'll dig into the bill text to confirm the accuracy of each entry and mark that it's been verified. In the meantime, if you notice any mistakes, feel free to reach out to nikki@policyinnovation.org.

Every section of the bill

Each color is a part of the bill. Bars fade when a section doesn't match your filters; select a bar to open that section.

Provisions

Based on the introduced Senate text (KAT26639, 417 pages). Votes shown are for predecessor bills; this bill has not yet had a vote. Where no predecessor is listed, we did not find one, but one may exist. Research current as of September 30, 2026.

Nikki Chiappa

Nikki is an expert in decarbonization and permitting policy with a strong track record of advancing pragmatic, market-driven solutions to clean energy infrastructure challenges. As the Permitting Innovation Lead at EPIC, she works with decision makers to better understand permitting bottlenecks and harness innovative solutions to break through them.

Her past work contributed to national conversations on the role of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in decarbonization, with her research and analysis featured in The Washington Post, Politico, S&P Global and Michael Cembalest’s Eye on the Market Report (2025).

Nikki has also worked in state-level clean energy advocacy at Clean Tomorrow, Advanced Energy United and the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, a regional affiliate of the Solar Energy Industries Association. In these roles, she helped build strong bipartisan coalitions to support offshore wind energy transmission expansion, streamlined rooftop solar permitting and improved stormwater management practices for utility scale solar projects.

She holds a B.A. in Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government and an M.P.A. in Environmental Policy, both from American University, and helped reestablish the D.C. chapter of Young Professionals in Energy in 2024.

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