Advancing Ecological Restoration Through Faster and Better Permitting
Our goal is to advance ecological restoration at scale, which requires bringing the nation’s environmental permitting process into the 21st Century.
We focus on collaboration, technology, and forward-thinking policies.
Emphasizing streamlined approvals for restoration projects, while maintaining the strong protections that make our regulatory system one of the world’s best.
National environmental laws adopted over 50 years ago were designed to address widespread industrial contamination and habitat loss.
They are landmark achievements for public health and better stewardship of the country’s land, water, air, and biodiversity. But complex regulatory changes and opaque agency procedures mean that environmental reviews and permitting are slower, more resource-intensive, and less effective—for all involved—at a time when it is critical to act quickly.
Environmental reviews and permits can take years to obtain, even for the most environmentally beneficial projects. As a result, ecological restoration sites are often selected based on ease of permitting rather than restoration potential—ultimately sacrificing opportunities for the environmental gains the country needs to address climate change and biodiversity loss.
These three strategies can improve the environmental review and permitting process, enhance coordination among agencies, and achieve better outcomes for all stakeholders.
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Interagency coordination is key to improving environmental review and permitting timelines. Establishing regional task forces across federal, state, and local agencies can streamline the review and approval of restoration projects.
Building on models like the Federal Permitting Council, task forces can identify bottlenecks, share best practices, and promote transparency in decision-making.
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Albert Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it.” Updating environmental reviews and permitting requires reimagining what the process needs to look like today to speed up progress. E-permitting systems can replace outdated, paper-based processes, improving speed and accountability and AI tools can draft routine environmental assessments, freeing up agency resources for more complex reviews. Changes like these would speed up permit issuance, enabling faster project implementation without compromising the integrity of environmental reviews.
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Environmental review and permitting improvements must also address the broader regulatory framework that governs land use and development. We champion an integrated approach to prioritize restoration and conservation in all development projects, minimizing environmental impacts from the outset. Transitioning to a “net gain” policy, where environmental restoration is a guiding principle, would align public and private investments with long-term sustainability goals. Improving compensatory mitigation policies and incentivizing voluntary restoration efforts will create a more proactive regulatory environment, delivering better outcomes for both the environment and the economy.
Our Initiatives
Fund nature, not paperwork
Leaders around the globe committed to restoring 30% of the world’s degraded ecosystems. But right now, the costs of permitting burn through up to ⅓ of a restoration project’s budget. We think restoration permits should take less than 1 year to approve. We are identifying policy and programmatic changes to speed up the approval processes for restoration projects.
Leverage technology to speed up and increase accountability in permitting
We approach this work holistically through advancing data standards, user-centered tool development, hiring tech talent and supporting shared services across agencies. Some examples include synthesizing stakeholder input on a new US Army Corps of Engineers’ e-permitting system, conducting detailed user testing of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s IPaC tool, partnering on a user centered design process to envision a better RIBITS (tool used by wetland, stream, and species mitigation stakeholders), supporting environmental technology & data summits and advising on topics like data standards in environmental permitting, and smart applications of AI to speed up the process.
Making the NEPA process more accessible
The environmental review process established by The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) has come under scrutiny for causing years-long delays and producing huge analysis documents that are hard for members of the public to access and interpret. We believe it’s possible to make the NEPA process more accessible to the public through applying technology, visualizations, and shorter and fewer documents.
One way to protect the wetlands the Supreme Court says don't matter (NEPA Sect 101 as a way to protect WL and streams, Nov 2023)
EPIC, FAS, and NEPAccess joint comments on NEPA Phase 2 Proposed Revisions (Sept 2023)
Top ten changes to NEPA in the debt limit deal (June 2 2023)
Top 20 ideas for conservation in Senate NEPA legislation (May 2023)
Top Ten Ideas for Better NEPA Outcomes (Feb 2023)
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Restoration Streamlining Database
EPIC created an interactive database of 80+ examples of legislation, policies, programs, and case studies that offer new pathways to buying environmental outcomes, and finding ways to reduce delays in permitting environmental restoration projects. The database is a helpful resource for state and federal policymakers and agency staff. The information in the database provides the raw ‘ingredients’ that could be used to replicate Pay for Success and Restoration Permit Streamlining in other contexts.
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Permitting Technology Database
Government agencies, NGOs and software companies use dozens of tools to manage the permitting process. We made an inventory of these digital permitting tools to daylight tools for interested users, open up lines of dialogue for cross-application learning, and highlight where investments are needed in permitting tech.
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Wetlands Impact Tracker: Revealing Public Notices for Public Good
We used AI to extract data from US Army Corps of Engineers public notices to make it easier for agencies, advocates and developers to see where projects were being sited and engage in the planning process. By automating collating the information, this dashboard follows federal permitting developments and their impacts on sensitive lands and waters along the Gulf Coast.
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Streamlining National Mitigation Bank Reviews
It takes an average of three years to get approval of a class of wetland and species habitat restoration projects called ‘mitigation banks.’ These delays hinder the availability of offsets for impacted waterways. We identified the top barriers in the US Army Corps of Engineers’ review process and highlighted dozens of solutions that could be implemented. And our work is having an impact.
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Streamlining State Mitigation Bank Reviews
We investigated what speeds and slows conservation bank approval timelines, and what ecological and economic consequences come from delayed processes. We identified that the total time to permit a conservation bank by the California Department of Fish and Game is between 761 - 1,740 days! Check out our research on bottlenecks and solutions to speed up mitigation bank reviews.
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Leveling the Playing Field for All Kinds of Restoration
The fish don’t care who pays for restoration, but some policy-makers pick winners (voluntary restoration) and losers (restoration for compliance purposes). We explore the arguments surrounding streamlined permitting efforts for restoration projects and challenge assumptions that drive a preference for voluntary projects.
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Pay for Success
Pay for Success is an approach that allows government agencies to contract for environmental outcomes as easily as procuring office supplies or services. The approach saves costs and streamlines administration and oversight over and above traditional grants for restoration projects. EPIC works on federal- and state-level contracting reform that makes it easier for government to define what outcomes they want to purchase and pave the way for efficient delivery of those outcomes.
Publications
