FPISC Executive Director Commits to Advance National Governor's Association Initiative
Contact Information
Permitting Council Press Office (media@permittting.gov)
San Francisco, CA – Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) Executive Director, Alexander Herrgott unveiled a new model for streamlining infrastructure project reviews across Federal and State government this week as part of the National Governors Association (NGA) Chair’s initiative, Infrastructure: Foundations for Success.
NGA Permitting Event
“Governors can create a customized State Permitting Council, tailored to fit the unique needs of their states. This achieves NGA’s goal to centralize decision makers, provide coordinated project schedules, and reduce uncertainty and costs,” said Herrgott. “Thanks to Governor Hogan’s leadership in identifying common sense solutions to ensure public and private dollars are focused on building desperately needed infrastructure.”
Herrgott’s proposal accelerates infrastructure development, from surface transportation to energy production and broadband. The proposed creation of State Permitting Councils includes a formalized plan for early stakeholder outreach and interagency coordination, a public tracking system, and additional resources through fees.
“In states across the country, governors are working together in a bipartisan way showing real leadership, making real progress, and finding real solutions to the serious problems facing us,” said Governor Hogan. “Our nation’s governors on both sides of the aisle are finding new ways to innovate, to reform, and to drive the debate. My goal is to harness that strength and come up with all the best ideas in order to tackle the infrastructure issue that is so fundamental to our economy, environment, and our way of life.”
“I am pleased to work alongside my friend and colleague, Governor Hogan, on this vital initiative to help governors speed up the delivery of infrastructure and reduce costs,” said Governor Steve Bullock. “By adopting process improvement tools like those identified during this stakeholder summit, governors can support the development of critical infrastructure while ensuring the natural resources vital to our state’s economy, environment, and wellbeing are protected.”
Mr. Herrgott’s presentation at the NGA Stakeholder Summit comes on the heels of the Permitting Council’s 15 Federal agencies and partners voting to affirm the White House Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation.
About the Permitting Council and FAST-41
Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) and made permanent in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Permitting Council is a unique federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is comprised of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members (including deputy secretary-level designees of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation); and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The Permitting Council coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 covered projects are entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 covered projects may be in the renewable or conventional energy production, electricity transmission, energy storage, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource, broadband, pipelines, manufacturing, mining, carbon capture, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, and cybersecurity sectors. The Permitting Council also serves as a federal center for permitting excellence, supporting federal efforts to improve infrastructure permitting including and beyond FAST-41 covered projects to the extent authorized by law, including activities that promote or provide for the efficient, timely, and predictable completion of environmental reviews and authorizations for federally-authorized infrastructure projects.
###
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 29, 2020