The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed PermitAI, a project designed to unify all vital data of the National Environmental Policy Act into a single, centralized database called NEPA Text Corpus, or NEPATEC 2.0.
Utilizing AI Algorithm to Unify Environmental Data
PNNL said Thursday that PermitAI leverages a custom artificial intelligence algorithm to instantly process and categorize data in document formats previously stored in siloed federal computer systems. The public can now access the processed, machine-readable data through the NEPATEC 2.0 database.
What Is NEPATEC 2.0?
NEPATEC 2.0 is a dataset that uses a standardized format created by the Council of Environmental Quality to standardize and organize data using metadata that reveals connections between data points, enhancing clarity and reusability.
The database now includes data from various federal agencies involved in environmental permitting, including NEPA planning documents such as environmental impact statements, environmental assessments and categorical exclusions. This aligns with America’s AI Action Plan and the Council on Environmental Quality’s mandate for standardized data practices.
“The release of NEPATEC 2.0 marks a key milestone in improving environmental review,” said Neelesh Nerurkar, director of infrastructure policy at DOE. “By making the permitting records usable at scale, it equips project developers and agencies with the data needed to reduce review timelines for crucial energy investments without sacrificing quality. PermitAI enables us to build the infrastructure we need for the future faster, smarter and more efficiently.”
