SunZia Southwest Transmission Project Receives FAST-41 Coverage
Contact Information
Permitting Council Press Office (media@permittting.gov)
The Permitting Council has added the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project to the Permitting Dashboard, effective July 29. The SunZia project is an electricity transmission project that will deliver 3,000 to 4,500 MW of clean energy to the Western United States. It is in line with the Administration’s plan to accelerate the needed expansion and modernization of America’s power infrastructure to build a more reliable electric grid, create good-paying, union jobs, and deliver clean American energy to American businesses and homeowners. The project is among 20 major transmission projects poised to move forward, potentially creating more than 600,000 new transmission-related jobs and an additional 640,000 jobs from new clean energy generation projects enabled by the new transmission lines. As a FAST-41 covered project, the SunZia project will benefit from state-of-the-art Federal project review and permitting process reforms for large-scale infrastructure projects, transparent permitting timetable development and execution, and enhanced interagency coordination.
In 2015, Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) created the Permitting Council to improve the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of the Federal permitting process for large, complex infrastructure projects. Comprised of an Executive Director, 13 Federal agency council members, the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Permitting Council uses the FAST-41 process to guide projects from a dozen sectors through as many as 60 Federal reviews and authorizations.
The FAST-41 process is a voluntary program governed by statutory eligibility criteria and expressly does not alter any applicable statutory or regulatory requirement, environmental review process, or public involvement procedure. FAST-41 coverage also does not predetermine the outcome of any Federal decision-making process for any project. Instead, the Permitting Council achieves FAST-41 benefits by coordinating interagency efforts, eliminating needless duplication, and engaging Federal agencies and project sponsors to foster improved communication and clarify expectations.
The Permitting Council has recognized unprecedented success in achieving its statutory objectives, as documented in its Annual Reports to Congress. The Permitting Council's process management strategy; consensus-driven permitting timetables; and enhanced coordination between Federal agencies; state, local, and Tribal partners; and project sponsors; have saved covered project sponsors more than $1 billion in total costs and an average of two years in project review and permitting time.
The Permitting Council's current active project portfolio includes 15 renewable energy production projects, three pipeline projects, two water resource projects, two conventional energy production projects, three electricity transmission projects, and one ports and waterways project—representing over $97 billion in economic investment and over 49,000 jobs. The Office of the Executive Director is committed to working with its member agencies to advance the administration's Build Back Better plan to maximize domestic investment and sustainable job creation by greening and modernizing America's critical infrastructure.
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.
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Last Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2021