PNNL

Clearing the path for critical infrastructure

For over 50 years, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has required agencies to conduct environmental reviews and document the potential impacts of proposed actions. Along with NEPA, there are other key laws, such as Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, National Historic Preservation Act, which also shape environmental review and permitting processes of energy and infrastructure projects. 
Gathering the documents that support these reviews and permitting decisions requires collecting information from a range of sources, making the process time-consuming and costly.

What is PermitAI^TM?

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is building a one-stop data platform offering reusable data products, artificial intelligence (AI) modules and services to streamline environmental review and permitting process for critical federal infrastructure. PermitAI combines a broad focus on the federal NEPA process across all technology projects with a targeted expansion to other federal and state (Nevada as blueprint) permitting processes for geothermal and critical mineral projects.

• PermitAI™ provides a vast repository of historical environmental review data (NEPATEC) to support research and analysis of past NEPA reviews and inform current projects. Its targeted expansion includes the PermitTec-GT dataset to support permitting research and analysis for geothermal projects.
• Powered by specialized large language model systems, PermitAI’s AI capabilities: SearchNEPA, CommentNEPA, WriteNEPA, EngageNEPA, PermitCE, PermitReg, and PermitLex are designed as reusable modules and services to support local, state, and federal agencies and other stakeholders within their existing workflows. These capabilities aim to support faster, more informed permitting decisions while reducing delays and costs. 

The PermitAI project is funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Policy, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation and Integrated Energy System Office, as well as the Permitting Council.

How can AI streamline environmental permitting?

Leveraging the expertise of the Department of Energy and national laboratories, PNNL is developing dataset, AI modules, and services to help improve environmental reviews and permitting across the federal government.

The foundation of these capabilities is a collection of data products (including NEPATEC and PermitTec-GT), drawing on historical environmental reviews and permitting documents containing millions of pages and billions of words. Building on these resources, PNNL is developing and testing AI modules and services that users can integrate into their existing workflows to accelerate individual tasks and support broader permitting workflows. These data products, modules, and services are designed to help users:

• Instantly recall and reference relevant federal environmental reviews (e.g., environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, and categorical exclusions) in new projects and provide summaries of key conclusions and data from those reviews.
• Rapidly discover, evaluate, and compare specific data that would be difficult or even impossible to locate through traditional research methods.
• Automate rote, repetitive workflows in the following ways:
  • Performing an initial review of correspondences and categorization of comments (e.g., from the public, other federal agencies, Tribal leaders, and industry), allowing subject matter experts to begin addressing the substance of comments as soon as they are received
  • Importing data from an applicant’s documentation into an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment and citing that documentation to expedite drafting and confirmatory analyses
  • Finding and highlighting apparent inconsistencies in data points or writing styles across different sections of a document.

How PermitAI™ applies AI to the permit review process

Data Collection, Enrichment, Management, and Governance

PermitAI™ is creating standardized data to improve quality and access. This includes building connections for NEPA data, including data on projects, processes, documents, and public involvement as well as comments and geographic information system records.

AI System Development and Evaluation

Using large language models to analyze thousands of environmental review documents, like categorical exclusions, environmental assessments, and environmental impact statements, can boost efficiency. This method can help to uncover trends, create a detailed map, and catalog all NEPA efforts.

NEPA Application Development and Deployment

The PermitAI™ team offers safe and reliable support to NEPA experts and users in government agencies, academia, Tribal governments, and the public for developing and evaluating permitting tools and applications.

Contact Us

Have questions about PermitAI™? Want to share your work in this space? Email us at permitai@pnnl.gov with questions, feedback, or general inquiries.