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  "description": "The administration is expanding automated reviews and digital systems.\n",
  "path": "/white-house-pushes-ai-tools-to-speed-federal-permitting/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-13T13:39:50.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "NTIA using electronic review tools"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, May 13, 2026 – Artificial intelligence tools and automated permitting systems are being deployed across federal agencies to accelerate environmental reviews and infrastructure approvals.\n\nWhite House Council on Environmental Quality Chair **Katherine Scarlett** said Tuesday the administration was prioritizing technology upgrades and broader use of categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act to reduce permitting delays for energy and infrastructure projects.\n\nThe reforms also span to broadband deployment, with NTIA using electronic review tools and categorical exclusions to move BEAD projects through environmental reviews more quickly.\n\n“We want to simplify this as much as possible,” Scarlett said during a fireside chat at a United States Energy Association event in Washington.\n\nAccording to Scarlett, the administration recently launched a “permitting innovators” initiative with NASA focused on identifying private-sector technologies that could modernize the federal permitting process.\n\nThe initiative includes workflow automation, digital case-management systems, AI-compatible documentation, and project-tracking tools intended to reduce delays caused by fragmented agency systems and outdated paper-based processes.\n\n“A lot of this is just done over emailing back and forth,” Scarlett said. “Somebody just hasn’t read the email.”\n\nScarlett also highlighted a pilot program with the Bureau of Land Management’s Moab field office that automates categorical exclusion determinations using a searchable federal database.\n\nAccording to Scarlett, the goal is to reduce environmental review determinations that can currently take months down to “hours or days.”\n\nThe comments come as federal agencies increasingly push permitting reforms aimed at accelerating infrastructure deployment and reducing review timelines for energy, broadband, and data center projects.\n\nMost major federal departments have already issued updated environmental review procedures following recent Supreme Court decisions narrowing the scope of federal environmental analysis requirements, Scarlett said.\n\nShe added that the administration was encouraging agencies to adopt standardized permitting technologies that could be reused across the federal government rather than building separate agency-specific systems.\n\n“We want to make them off the shelf,” Scarlett said, arguing faster reviews could be achieved by improving coordination and eliminating duplicative processes rather than weakening environmental protections. “It’s not at the expense of the environment.”",
  "title": "White House Pushes AI Tools To Speed Federal Permitting",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-21T21:47:49.606Z"
}