Permitting
The success of recent climate-related reforms such as the Inflation Reduction Act investments will depend on the government’s ability to lay the groundwork for greener, more efficient infrastructure. Meeting essential climate goals depend on private and public stakeholders’ ability to responsibly site, build and deploy proposed critical clean energy projects – and many of these projects simply can’t happen fast enough without changes to the way the country handles permitting. The urgency of building new clean energy infrastructure – coupled with revised guidance to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – creates a critical window of opportunity for permitting reform.
FAS supports the federal government as agencies answer the call to innovate talent, data, and regulatory systems that allow us to build infrastructure faster, better, and at lower cost without sacrificing the quality of environmental review.
We built this inventory to enhance our collective understanding of how that software is used in the federal permitting process—and to open lines of dialogue for cross-agency and cross-sector learning.
“Permitting reform” may not sound sexy, but it is critical if the federal government wants to meet its clean energy and climate goals.
Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration should strive to clarify environmental regulatory requirements and standing for litigation under NEPA.