The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council will invest $30 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to support the development and improvement of information technology at federal agencies to speed federal permitting reviews and authorizations of infrastructure projects.
The investment will support 13 IT projects in 11 federal agencies and will incorporate new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, geographic information systems and data-sharing tools, into permitting processes, the Permitting Council said Monday.
Four offices within the Department of the Interior will receive funding worth $14.2 million combined to enhance a public comment analysis tool, implement IT software for renewable energy, streamline workflow and conduct a right-of-way system feasibility study.
The rest of the investment will go to the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development and Forest Service, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Energy and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“In order to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity to transition to a clean energy economy and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, we need to make sure that federal agencies are equipped with state-of-the-art IT resources that will support meaningful public engagement, enhance transparency and timeliness of decisions without sacrificing environmental quality,” said Eric Beightel, executive director of the Permitting Council.
