What Is BAAJA? The Bipartisan Bill That Could Lower Your Power Bill
What if one of the ways to lower your electricity bill was already on the table in Congress? It is. It’s called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or BAAJA, and Democrats and Republicans actually agree on it.
What BAAJA does
Part of the proposed bipartisan bill would make it easier for states to share electricity. That way, families could benefit from cheaper power generated hundreds of miles away.
Right now, that’s harder than it should be. “Building regional or interregional transmission has basically ground to a halt in America,” David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said on the Heatmap podcast Shift Key. Without enough big power lines connecting states, low-cost electricity from one region can’t reach families in another. They end up paying more for whatever is available close to home.
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, BAAJA tackles that problem in a few practical ways:
- Regions plan together. Neighboring regions would have to plan power lines jointly so electricity can flow between them.
- Projects stop stalling. If a state hasn’t acted on a major power line after a year, federal regulators could step in and approve it.
- You pay for what you get. Customers would pay for new lines in proportion to the benefits they receive. Customers who get no real benefit couldn’t be charged.
- Data centers cover their own costs. Data centers would pay the added costs they create on the grid.
The Bipartisan Policy Center calls the bill “a true compromise” in which “the end result will be reduced costs for Americans.”
Sounds pretty good, right? Well, there’s a catch.
Cheaper power from somewhere else is good news for families. Big utilities like Duke Energy and Southern Company could see it as competition. Power brought in from another state can compete with power from the plants they own, and that could threaten their profits.
Most utilities are regulated monopolies. As Pomerantz put it, the monopoly “is the crown jewel of how a utility makes money.”
Watchdogs warn that utilities may try to weaken these reforms behind closed doors. In October, Utility Watch writers David Pomerantz and Daniel Tait predicted that utilities are more likely to work privately than to oppose BAAJA in public. They added that Southeastern utilities are “likely to be the ones who will do the most intensive lobbying” against its power line provisions.
The track record explains why people are paying attention:
- Southern Company has pushed back on changes to how big power lines are planned. In 2022 comments to federal regulators, it argued that “a minimum set of benefits should not be required” in regional transmission planning.
- Duke Energy “claims that no additional transfer capability is needed” with its neighbors, according to testimony sponsored by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. The same testimony found Duke plans transmission over only a 10-year horizon.
Southern Company also spent about $3 million on federal lobbying from July through September 2026, which might have included talks about BAAJA.
None of this means either company is working against the bill today. It does mean ratepayers have good reason to watch closely.
Our message to Congress and the big utilities
We’re watching. No backroom deals that put utility profits ahead of affordable electricity. Keep the protections for cheaper power in the bill, because Americans deserve lower bills, not more roadblocks.
Sources
- Explaining the Senate Permitting Bill, BAAJA (Bipartisan Policy Center): what the bill does, “true compromise” quote
- Monopoly utilities are likely to try to kill transmission reform (Utility Watch): private lobbying prediction, Southern’s 2022 comments
- Shift Key transcript with David Pomerantz (Heatmap): “ground to a halt” and “crown jewel” quotes
- Duke’s transmission planning too short-sighted for Carolinas’ needs (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy): Duke transfer capability and 10-year horizon