Senate weighs sweeping energy legislation in first major action since midterm elections

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday is set to take up bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for data centers and other infrastructure projects, in the first major action since last week’s election that soundly repudiated President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote on the bill, which senators and the president have pushed as officials seek to meet growing demand for electricity and other forms of energy that now faces yearslong delays in getting to the grid. The legislation’s sweeping changes would shorten the timeline to get big energy projects started — both for clean energy and fossil fuel projects — and make sure data centers pay for the energy they use. Anger over artificial intelligence data centers and rising electricity helped usher in a wave of Democrats pledging to clamp down on the massive, energy-hungry structures. Trump urged senators to vote for it, calling it a “BIG WIN for U.S. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and DOMINANCE.” in a social media post on Sunday. The bill will “ensure that we