Permitting Action Plan

This action plan aims to enable the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's objectives (economic growth, communities resilience, climate change combatting, and nature conservation) to be fulfilled. It focuses on making environmental review and permitting processes more efficient and transparent, guided by science, and shaped by early and meaningful public input. To achieve this, five actions should be undertaken: (1) accelerating permitting through early cross-agency coordination to appropriately scope reviews, reduce bottlenecks, and use the expertise of sector-specific teams; (2) establishing clear timeline goals and tracking key project information to improve transparency and accountability, providing increased certainty for project sponsors and the public; (3) engaging in early and meaningful outreach and communication with Tribal Nations, States, territories, and local communities; (4) improving agency responsiveness, technical assistance, and support to navigate the environmental review and permitting process effectively and efficiently; and (5) adequately resourcing agencies and using the environmental review process to improve environmental and community outcomes.

The document states that it "leverages existing permitting authorities and new provisions included in the BIL, such as new coordination and timeline requirements3 that apply to major transportation projects, and new FAST-41 requirements and authorities, including those for covered projects in the renewable or conventional energy production, electricity transmission, water resources, broadband, pipelines, carbon capture, and other infrastructure sectors."

Under this plan, the administration gathered experts on the following topics: