PermitAI
PermitAI
Faster federal permitting using AI

(Photo composite by Shannon Colson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
PermitAI
Faster federal permitting using AI
(Photo composite by Shannon Colson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
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. However, these important documents must be collected from a range of sources, making the process time-consuming and costly.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is building a one-stop data platform and a powerful suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to streamline and accelerate the review process for critical federal infrastructure.
Leveraging the expertise of the Department of Energy and national laboratories, PNNL is leading the way in developing AI-powered tools to improve environmental reviews and permitting across the federal government.
The foundation of these tools is a comprehensive dataset of past environmental reviews and permitting documents containing millions of pages and billions of words. Building on this dataset, PNNL is testing AI-powered applications focused on accelerating individual tasks and workflows. Users of these applications can do the following, and more:
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 Model 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.
Have questions about PermitAI? Want to share your work in this space? Email us at permitai@pnnl.gov with questions, feedback, or general inquiries.