President Biden has appointed Eric Beightel, a two-decade environmental and transportation industry veteran, as executive director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council.
He will succeed outgoing executive director Christine Harada, who will transition to a new role within the Biden administration in July, the Permitting Council said Wednesday.
In his new position, Beightel will oversee a portfolio of large-scale infrastructure projects in renewable energy, broadband and electricity transmission sectors and work to improve the coordination and transparency of the federal infrastructure authorization process.
Beightel will join the Permitting Council from engineering and construction services firm HDR, where he was associate vice president and national lead for infrastructure policy and environmental strategy.
His government career included roles as a senior environmental policy adviser within the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy and a policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget.
The Permitting Council was established in 2015 under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act to coordinate the government’s environmental reviews and authorizations for certain infrastructure projects.
