Inventory of Environmental Permitting Tools
Historic federal investments in climate resilience, the clean energy transition, and new infrastructure will hinge on the government’s ability to efficiently permit, site, and build key projects. That’s why EPIC and the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) are collaborating on strategies and resources to help accelerate permitting innovation. Systems and digital tools play a central role throughout the permitting process—from project siting and design, to permit application steps and post-permit activities. We built this inventory to enhance our collective understanding of how software is used in the federal permitting process, and to open lines of dialogue for cross-agency and cross-sector learning.
The inventory below catalogs over sixty permitting software applications from across federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations, and private companies. While far from comprehensive, our goals with this first iteration are to survey permitting tools for interested users, open up lines of dialogue for cross-application learning, and highlight where we see needs for further permitting tech investment.
FAQs
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Software programs for environmental permitting sourced from federal and state agencies, non-profits, and private companies. While many digital tools are used throughout environmental permitting, this inventory includes only those tools expressly intended for steps in the permitting process. The inventory emphasizes applications that are publicly accessible or advertised, rather than a comprehensive list of internal systems.
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This inventory focuses on publicly accessible or advertised applications, rather than a comprehensive list of internal systems used by permitting personnel. We sourced these applications from staff interviews with the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Energy (DOE), as well as federal agency permitting websites, Google keyword searches, and snowball sampling from private companies.
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To explore tool types and information, simply scroll down within each category column (federal, non-profit, etc.), or across columns. To learn more about a specific tool (e.g., its owner, relevant permitting stage, etc.), simply click on the tool. You can also filter results using the “Filter,” “Sort,” or key word search features located at the top of the viewer. For a more tailored search, add “conditions” using the filter function to see tools organized by “owner” (e.g., Federal, State), “entity” (e.g., agency, company name), or “bureau.” For a larger view, you can also use this webpage.
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Are you interested in this work? Did we miss something? We want to hear from you: click here to get in touch.
Note: This beta inventory will be refined as features, an improved user interface, and more tools are added in the weeks and months ahead.