PermitAI Hosts AI-Focused Workshop for Environmental Permitting

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming federal permitting practices and making it easier to conduct environmental reviews—and that comes with potential challenges, opportunities, and a wealth of AI-assisted tools. These were the topics of discussion during an interactive workshop hosted by the PermitAI team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on April 29, 2025, during the National Association of Environmental Professionals Annual Conference & Training Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina.

The workshop, hosted in partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE) and Idaho National Laboratory, attracted more than 50 environmental professionals seeking to learn how to better use AI to streamline environmental reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Workshop participants covered diverse topics and explored how AI can be applied across various federal agencies to support national energy and infrastructure goals. To read a more detailed overview of the event, download the workshop report. 

Jack Titus, policy advisor at DOE’s Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies, opened the workshop with welcoming remarks and introduced keynote speaker Eric Beightel, a renowned expert in NEPA and environmental policy. Beightel shared insights on how AI tools could modernize outdated permitting systems and enhance the efficiency of environmental reviews.

Following his presentation, PNNL data scientist Sameera Horawalavithana discussed DOE’s PermitAI, an initiative focused on creating NEPA-specific data pipelines and applications. Currently, PermitAI is being tested by interagency partners to expedite and streamline labor-intensive NEPA processes.

How industry is using AI for federal permitting

Next, a series of case studies illustrated AI's practical application in streamlining permitting processes from agency, public, and project sponsor perspectives.

In the first session, Matthew Aumeier, an expert in Environmental Policy and Systems Innovation at Idaho National Laboratory, explained how the national laboratory is using AI to draft project descriptions for categorical exclusion documents. He introduced the AI Scope Assist tool, which allows users to upload documents and receive project descriptions instantaneously without disrupting their workflow.  

In the second session, Michelle Rau and Kevin Murphy from Jacobs Engineering presented on how their firm is using AI to automate the handling of public comments, streamlining tasks like comment tagging, summarizing, and response drafting. They explained how using AI solves challenges posed by large volumes of comments in diverse formats.  

During the last session, James McWalter, CEO of Paces, described how the company’s AI tool can create environmental reports for large power projects in less than 20 minutes. The company's platform addresses challenges such as navigating the complex landscape of thousands of unique jurisdictional ordinances and disorganized local data.

Attendees explore challenges and opportunities

After each presentation, attendees discussed barriers that pose challenges to the scalability and integration of AI in permitting processes, such as inconsistent data standards, siloed databases, and decentralized workflows. Attendees also expressed concern about ethical and quality assurance issues, highlighting the importance of transparency and human validation of AI-generated text to reduce risks associated with synthetic comments and automated decision-making.  

Workshop participants also discussed the opportunities inherent in AI, such as enhancing data management through standardized data pipelines and improving the tracking and evaluation of permitting actions. AI boosts efficiency in NEPA workflows by augmenting human expertise in tasks like comment analysis and report drafting, while increasing accountability and transparency when used with awareness of its limitations.  

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