The White House thinks better tech could speed up permitting

Federal permitting is often opaque, lengthy and requires approvals from multiple agencies. The Biden administration is hoping tech can improve the process.

The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality recommended that the federal government modernize and connect its technology and data to speed up federal permitting and environmental review processes in a new report last week.

Capitol Hill hasn’t been able to lock in broad permitting reform, despite multiple attempts, including a new bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W. Vir) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Tuesday covering energy permitting. 

But potential efficiencies in permitting and environmental review processes are available now, the council suggests in the report.

Currently, the tech landscape consists of “many independent software tools operating more or less in isolation from one another,” the report states. 

“Each agency defines what its systems should do and what data they should track,” CEQ says, because “there are no existing guidelines.”

That means that applicants have to submit the same data multiple times into different systems and log into several online portals to get updates, view documents or submit comments on projects. 

CEQ recommended that the government build towards a more unified experience by establishing data standards and taxonomy as well as a common architecture to support interoperable agency systems. Then, agencies could automate data exchanges across their systems and eventually build shared services to meet common needs. 

That could mean faster timelines and more transparency, CEQ says, as well as better coordination across agencies and an easier experience for applicants.

Lawmakers asked for the report in the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, which made some changes to permitting and environmental review, including a new requirement to designate a lead agency when multiple federal agencies are involved in a proposal.

The report is primarily focused on the National Environmental Policy Act.

A landmark environmental law signed in 1970, NEPA requires agencies to weigh the environmental effects of proposed actions — including issuing required permits for things like highway or energy projects — before they make decisions. 

In the new report, CEQ takes a broad view of how agencies use technology in the permitting activities often required concurrently with complex NEPA reviews. 

The report is part of a broader policy push. In April, the administration announced $30 million from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated by the Permitting Council in new permitting-related tech. 

It also comes as the Biden administration tries to push out hundreds of billions in climate and infrastructure funding.

“This report outlines how agencies can create better, more efficient digital tools so we can better allocate federal resources to the important work of engaging communities, analyzing environmental effects and delivering smarter decisions to accelerate permitting for critical infrastructure,” Brenda Mallory, CEQ chair, said in a statement. 

Building out clean energy projects, which also require permits, is also a critical component of efforts to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

“How do we meet our nation's infrastructure goal and not do so in a way that compromises our environmental stewardship?” said Jessie Mahr, director of technology at the nonprofit Environmental Policy Innovation Center, told Nextgov/FCW.

“We can't afford to wait for five years to get the permission to then build something that we know we need to combat climate change,” she said. “So how do we think about simplifying the process overall, not just doing the same process faster?”

In the law requiring the report, Congress asked for CEQ to consider the potential of a single permitting portal. Trying to build a single, government-wide solution is too risky, CEQ decided. Large-scale software projects in government have a notoriously high failure rate.

But data standards and taxonomy, as well as a common architecture for agency platforms, could enable a more unified experience connected on the back-end, the report states. 

CEQ says that it did a discovery sprint with the Office of Management and Budget, Permitting Council and U.S. Service, and enlisted the technical expertise of the General Services Administration’s 18F as it wrote the report, in addition to meeting with tech experts and seeing software demonstrations.

To implement the report’s vision, more tech capacity in permitting offices would be necessary, as would a “coordinated, government-wide digital strategy for NEPA and related permitting processes,” the report states. 

CEQ calls out agile, human-centered and iterative tech practices as key, and states that some shared services, playbooks on best practices and training would also be useful. 

The White House council says in the report that it could provide the guidance and data standards. It isn’t clear if it will follow the report recommendations, though.

A CEQ spokesperson told NextGov/FCW that the council was weighing next steps when asked if the council would be implementing the recommendations.