Fast permits for data centers
Fast permits and power for AI data centers. Faster environmental reviews and grid connections for AI data centers and power plants.
What it does
Speed up environmental reviews and grid connections for large AI data centers and the power plants that feed them, as a 2025 executive order and pending permitting bills aim to do.
Applies to: Data centers over 100 megawatts and the generation that serves them.
- Create faster environmental review paths and federal-land siting for data centers over 100 megawatts (July 2025 executive order).
- Speed grid interconnection for large loads and new generation.
- Pass permitting reform such as the SPEED Act.
Where things stand
The July 2025 order is in effect. FERC ordered grid operators in June 2026 to address large-load interconnection. The SPEED Act passed the House in December 2025; Senate talks were ongoing in September 2026.
Why it gains ~4 weeks
Power is now a main limit on how fast labs add compute, and new plants wait years to connect to the grid. Faster permits get some compute online sooner: about 10 days of progress a year in.
Biggest unknown: How much permitting, as opposed to chips, turbines and transformers, is the binding limit on new compute.
Its effect on p(doom)
Not a safety law. It gets AI data centers built faster.
It speeds up U.S. progress. That may add a little risk by speeding the race, but the effect is unclear.
The strongest case that it costs more
For a lower gain: labs build where power is already available, and chips, not permits, set the pace. For a higher one: if power is the binding constraint by 2027, permitting could be worth several months a year.
The debate
For
- Anthropic urged faster permitting and grid buildout for AI, 2025.
- Institute for Progress proposed faster, flexible grid interconnection for AI, 2026.
Against
- Earthjustice Action said weakening bedrock environmental laws is not the solution, 2025.
Sources
- Executive order on accelerating federal permitting of data center infrastructure (July 2025)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Queued Up 2026: median over five years to connect
- Anthropic, Build AI in America (2025)
- Institute for Progress, Interconnection for AI (2026)
- Epoch AI, Power demands of frontier AI training (2025)
Rough starting points, not precise forecasts. Lead costs assume China doesn't depend on U.S. models, the case least favorable to safety laws, and count 3 years. On the menu you can change every assumption and put in your own numbers. Last priced 2026-09-26.