Permitting Action Plan Implementation Guidance Summary

Here you can find essential guidance and strategic insights that are designed to bring efficiency to the infrastructure permitting process under the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council’s (Permitting Council) FAST-41 program. This resource is crafted to help stakeholders understand the implementation of the Permitting Action Plan, ensuring effective and efficient project reviews.  

Permitting Action Plan Implementation Guidance Summary

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the Permitting Council's Executive Director released guidance to implement the Permitting Action Plan developed during the Biden Administration. This guidance aims to enhance federal environmental reviews and permitting projects, ensuring key infrastructure improvements are efficient and within budget. It promotes early collaboration across agencies, setting clear timelines, engaging with state, tribal, and local entities, improving agency support, and minimizing environmental impact. The guidance also establishes interagency teams to address permitting challenges and enhance project tracking on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. 

This guidance provides direction for agencies to: 

• Improve the efficiency of the permitting process by coordinating early among different agencies. 

• Set clear deadlines and keep track of important project details. 

• Engage with states, Tribal nations, territories, and local communities early on to support environmental justice. 

• Enhance agency support, responsiveness, and the help they provide. 

• Use agency resources to improve the environment and community outcomes, such as by reducing pollution. 

Additionally, the administration has convened sector-specific teams of experts to coordinate across the Federal Government on siting, permitting, supply chain, and related issues. The guidance directs these sector teams to identify and provide regular updates to the Permitting Council on:  

• Identifying and addressing general permitting challenges 

• Highlighting major infrastructure projects needing special attention 

• Developing strategies to resolve complex issues and streamline environmental review  

The Action Plan outlines how agencies should propose infrastructure projects under FAST-41 to enhance transparency and monitoring of environmental reviews for specific projects that aim to advance the clean energy sector, strengthen energy security, revitalize communities, reduce costs, create jobs, and enable timely infrastructure investments.