The Council on Environmental Quality issued its Permitting Technology Action Plan, which seeks to modernize federal environmental review and permitting processes for a wide range of infrastructure projects, according to a White House press release. The action fulfills a directive from President Trump for agencies to make maximum use of technology in federal environmental reviews and permitting processes, according to the CEQ’s Permitting Innovation Center website.
The Trump administration has placed a major emphasis on overhauling the environmental review and permitting process that significantly slow down the delivery of a variety of infrastructure, energy and other projects. April 15 the President issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to integrate technology into their review workflows in order to accelerate the processing time for infrastructure projects.
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has proposed another round of modifications to its regulations that govern how federal agencies assess the environmental effects of their proposed projects, programs, and permitting prior to making decisions. On its face, the proposal implements AGC-backed permitting efficiencies directed by Congress in recent statutory amendments in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 – including setting hard deadlines and page limits for agencies’ reviews, adding a process for a federal agency to use another agency’s categorical exclusion.