Democrats hid a ‘Green New Scam’ poison pill in a bipartisan bill — a former AOC aide just admitted it

Republicans did something rare in Washington. They passed a bipartisan permitting reform bill through the House. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 would speed up construction of the pipelines, power plants, and grid upgrades this country needs. It should be an easy win, but Senate Democrats have put in a poison pill where it’s most likely to be overlooked: the so-called “transmission title,” a section about the grid and electricity transmission.The poison pill mandates that the federal government can override local opposition to sprawling energy generation and transmission land grabs. The Democrats’ purpose is to protect the wind industry, the same industry Democrats have subsidized since the Obama years and never stopped defending under former President Joe Biden. Wind power costs more to generate, produces inorganic, nonbiodegradable waste, and takes vastly more land than other power generation.A single 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor needs about 1.3 square miles of land. Generating 1,000 MW from wind power takes about 220 square miles, roughly 170 times the footprint, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Wind cannot be sited quietly. It needs sprawling buildouts and long transmission lines that voters keep rejecting. That is exactly why Democrats want Washington bureaucrats, not local communities, deciding where those lines go and who foots the bill. Ask yourself what Democrats are actually fighting for here. It’s not lower bills, and it’s not a stronger grid. They want to guarantee that wind power gets built whether voters want it or not.You don’t have to take Republicans’ word for it. Grayson Flood, a senior fellow at the progressive group Groundwork and a former legislative director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), spelled out the real purpose of these transmission mandates in a thread on X. They exist to move wind and solar power onto a grid that local communities have refused to host. Flood even called the bill “necessary, but insufficient,” a tell that the Left sees these mandates as only a first step toward a far more sweeping federal takeover of transmission siting. When a former Ocasio-Cortez staffer is cheering a permitting bill’s transmission provisions, American families do not need to guess whom it was written to benefit.Their trouble is that wind power keeps losing the argument locally. Fifty-eight of Iowa’s 99 counties now restrict wind development. Iowa built only three wind projects in 2025 and one the year before that. Even wind energy’s own advocates admit the state is essentially closed for business.Iowa is not alone. Hundreds of counties across dozens of states have moved to block or restrict wind siting, as residents get a firsthand look at what these projects actually do to their land. So, when you cannot win at the county level, what do you do? You go over the counties’ heads.That is what this fight is really about.Strip away the new language, and it is the same “Green New Scam” underneath. Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to rein in federal spending and roll back the renewable-energy tax credits. Now, after failing to pass a carbon tax or cap-and-trade, Democrats are trying to secure a permanent advantage for wind through the back door of a bill that was supposed to cut red tape.States that built responsibly, with a sensible mix of gas, nuclear, and coal, kept their electricity prices in check. Under this scheme, though, states that have sensible energy policies get stuck paying for the failed clean energy mandates of states that do not.None of this makes the grid more reliable. More transmission only helps if there is power to move. No mandate makes the wind blow on command. Meanwhile, families watch their bills climb to fund projects hundreds of miles away that will never power a single home in their own state.IRAN WEAPONIZED ONE CHOKEPOINT IN THE GULF. WE HAVE DOZENS UNPROTECTED AT HOMERepublicans should not cave to these Biden-era priorities. They do not need to gut permitting reform to get this passed, and they should not let Democrats hold a good bill hostage over one industry’s wish list.Pass permitting reform. Get gas, nuclear, and coal projects built faster. These are the fuels that actually keep the lights on. Do not let Senate Democrats turn a bipartisan win into a permanent handout for an industry that cannot win on its own merits. Families never signed up to pay for that.Bart Marcois is a former principal deputy assistant energy secretary and a retired Foreign Service officer. He was a consultant on permitting reform at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He is a frequent commentator in print and broadcast, and produces daily broadcasts on YouTube @aMinuteWithBart.