今年6月，西半球最大的清洁能源基础设施项目——SunZia风电与输电项目在新墨西哥州投入运营。该项目的916台风力涡轮机如今为超过100万户家庭供电。这是一项我引以为豪、曾协助推动的重大成就，但本应早十几年就已建成。该项目的许可与建设耗时17年——SunZia并非孤例。全美范围内，能源基础设施项目的许可流程耗时过长。审批过程可能长达十年甚至更久，而此时连一台挖掘机都未进场。事实上，许可审批或许是经济领域代价最高昂的瓶颈。
IN JUNE THE largest clean-energy-infrastructure project in the western hemisphere came online in New Mexico. The SunZia Wind and Transmission Project’s 916 wind turbines now power over 1m homes. It’s a momentous accomplishment I was proud to help deliver, but it’s one that should have come a dozen years sooner. The project took 17 years to permit and build—and SunZia isn’t alone. Across America, energy-infrastructure projects take far too long to permit. The approval process can stretch on a decade or more, before a single digger has moved in. Indeed, permitting might be the economy’s most expensive bottleneck.
美国能否满足21世纪的能源需求，取决于其能否建设现代化的清洁能源经济。其许可制度规定了企业可建设什么以及如何建设：输电线路、管道、发电设施、制造工厂和交通基础设施等项目，需要多个联邦机构依据多部环境与许可法规给予多重批准。这一流程如今阻碍了新清洁能源的上线，也制约了重要的经济投资。麦肯锡估计，超过3万亿美元的美国经济活动与等待联邦许可的基础设施项目相关。
America’s ability to meet the energy demands of the 21st century depends on its ability to build a modern, clean energy economy. Its permitting regime tells companies what they can build and how: projects like transmission lines, pipelines, energy-generation facilities, manufacturing plants and transport infrastructure require multiple approvals from multiple federal agencies across several environmental and permitting statutes. That process is now standing in the way of getting new clean energy online and unlocking important economic investment. McKinsey estimates that more than $3trn in American economic activity is tied to infrastructure projects awaiting federal permits.
与此同时，美国的电力需求预计在未来十年将大幅增长，威胁电网可靠性、能源负担能力和经济竞争力。我每天都能看到这种日益加剧的压力对我选民造成的影响。
At the same time, America’s electricity needs are expected to grow dramatically over the next decade, threatening grid reliability, energy affordability and economic competitiveness. I see the effects of this growing strain on my constituents every day.
幸运的是，有一个直面这些问题的计划，其首字母缩写为 BAAJA。《两党美国可负担与就业法案》（Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act）——参议院于 11 月 9 日投票推进该法案，我与另一位民主党人和两位共和党人共同发起——并不取消环境考量、项目诉讼权或当地社区的评论权。这些都是必要的。但它确实将这些审查变成了一个可预测流程中的标准化环节。
Fortunately, there is a plan for tackling these problems head-on, and it goes by the acronym BAAJA. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act—which the Senate voted to advance on November 9th and which I co-sponsor with another Democrat and two Republicans—does not remove environmental considerations, the ability to litigate projects or the ability for local communities to comment. Those are necessary. But it does make these reviews a standardised part of a predictable process.
首先，BAAJA 为这些流程设定了标准化时间表，涵盖从授权决定到公众评论期再到诉讼时限。BAAJA 将那些因缺乏法定时间表而无限拖延的审查，转变为可预测的工作流程。合理的环境考量、法律挑战和社区意见均受到保护，但这些流程将变得高效。对项目开发商和消费者而言，这意味着能更快、更廉价、更可预测地将电子输送上电网。哥伦比亚大学的一项研究估计，BAAJA 将为输电项目节省八年，为太阳能项目节省三年，为地热项目节省两年半，为海上和陆上风电项目各节省约两年。
First, BAAJA creates standardised timelines for these processes, from authorisation decisions to public comment periods to litigation windows. BAAJA takes reviews that drag on and on—because there is no legally mandated timeline—and creates a predictable workflow. Legitimate environmental considerations, legal challenges and community input are protected, but those processes would be efficient. For both project developers and consumers, this means getting electrons on the grid faster, more cheaply and more predictably. A study by Columbia University estimates that BAAJA would save eight years for transmission projects, three years for solar projects, two and a half years for geothermal projects and about two years for offshore and onshore wind projects.
BAAJA 还制定了有利于能源生产的新政策。它将联邦输电规划成文，使不同地区共同规划，而非各自为政。它禁止优先拒绝权规则，目前该规则赋予现有公用事业公司优先建设新区域输电线路的机会——从而创造一个更具竞争力的市场。它开放批发市场，并要求电网运营商允许聚合商为电网供电，这将使太阳能电池板等小规模电源在用电高峰期能够接入电网。
BAAJA also creates new policies that would benefit energy production. It codifies federal transmission planning so that different regions all plan together instead of separately. It bans right-of-refusal rules, which currently give incumbent utilities the first chance to build new regional lines—creating a more competitive marketplace. It opens wholesale markets and requires grid operators to allow aggregators to energise the grid, which would allow small-scale power sources like solar panels to connect to the grid in times of high usage.
此外，BAAJA 将使政府阻挠或随意撤销许可在财务上付出高昂代价且几乎不可能实现，因此有价值的可再生能源项目不会仅仅因为总统怀疑清洁能源而一夜之间被叫停。
And BAAJA would make it financially costly and virtually impossible for an administration to block or undo permits on a whim, so worthwhile renewables projects couldn’t be shut down by a president overnight simply because he is sceptical of clean energy.
BAAJA 还是首部切实让数据中心为其成本负责的联邦立法。该法案要求数据中心承担接入电网的费用，而这一负担目前由美国民众承担。通过要求电力公司向数据中心收取输电服务费，可以降低其他客户的输电费用。能源咨询公司 Grid Strategies 估计，根据 BAAJA，十年内可从数据中心收取 550 亿美元的输电成本。
BAAJA is also the first federal legislation to meaningfully hold data centres accountable for their costs. The bill requires them to pay the costs of connecting to the grid, a burden American citizens are currently shouldering. By requiring electric utilities to charge data centres for transmission services, we can drive down transmission charges to other customers. Grid Strategies, an energy consultancy, estimates that $55bn in transmission costs could be collected from data centres over ten years under BAAJA.
这是一项需要妥协的两党法案。虽然《建设美国法案》规定了严格的时间表，但不应将截止日期误读为缺乏审查。要求基础设施项目考虑其对环境和社区的影响这一规定依然保留。根据《建设美国法案》，环境影响报告书——即详述项目潜在环境后果的详细文件——的完成时限为两年，这仍是充足的考量时间。该法案强制要求与美洲原住民部落及其他可能担心为清洁能源转型“削减繁文缛节”会带来影响的社区进行磋商；相比之下，现任政府曾扬言要取消这些要求。
Now, this is a bipartisan bill that demanded compromise. While there are strict timelines under BAAJA, deadlines should not be mistaken for lack of review. The requirement that infrastructure projects consider the environments and communities they affect remains. Environmental Impact Statements—detailed documents on a project’s potential environmental consequences— are given two years with BAAJA, still substantial time for consideration. The bill mandates consultation with Native American tribes and other communities that may worry about the impact of cutting “red tape” for a clean-energy transition; the current administration, by contrast, has threatened to eliminate those requirements.
诚然，《建设美国法案》将使任何类型的项目——无论清洁与否——都更容易获得许可，但现实是，等待接入电网的能源中有很大份额是可再生能源和储能。《未来资源》智库的模型测算显示，从现在到2041年，《建设美国法案》可能导致累计二氧化碳排放量减少约18亿吨——这一减排量超过让美国全部轻型车辆停驶一年的效果。同样，作为行业协会的美国太阳能产业协会估计，若《建设美国法案》获通过，2035年太阳能和风能将占美国发电量的37.4%，而若维持现行许可制度，这一比例仅为19.6%。
And although it is true that BAAJA will make it easier to permit any kind of project, clean or not, the reality is that a huge share of the energy waiting to connect to the grid is renewable energy and storage. Modelling by Resources For the Future suggests that BAAJA could cause a decline in cumulative CO2 of about 1.8 gigatonnes—more than if the entire light-duty vehicle fleet was taken off America’s roads for a year—between now and 2041. Similarly, the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade body, estimates that BAAJA’s adoption would mean solar and wind would provide 37.4% of America’s electricity generation in 2035, against 19.6% if the current permitting regime remains in place.
这些预测鲜明地说明，美国的许可制度对经济造成了沉重拖累。为国家未来的繁荣与安全，必须对其进行改革。■ 马丁·海因里希是新墨西哥州联邦参议员，参议院能源和自然资源委员会首席议员。
These forecasts starkly illustrate the heavy drag America’s permitting regime places on the economy. For the nation’s future prosperity and security, it must be reformed. ■ Martin Heinrich is a United States Senator for New Mexico and the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.