(THE WHITE HOUSE) The Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Permitting Innovation Center recently announced the launch of a pilot program for CE Works, a technology platform that digitizes the environmental review process to assist federal agencies with completing categorical exclusion (CE) determinations pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Federal agencies make thousands of CE determinations per year, and making determinations with this new technology will cut through red tape and result in expedited timelines for important energy and infrastructure projects.
CE Works provides agencies with a digital pathway to apply categorical exclusions under NEPA. Agency staff can use the platform to select an appropriate CE, collaborate among resource experts within the agency, route the determination for approval, and generate a record for publication.
CE Works was developed in response to President Donald J. Trump’s memorandum Updating Permitting Technology for the 21st Century. Specifically, it calls on CEQ to design and test prototype tools for use under the Permitting Technology Action Plan for modernizing the technology used for Federal permitting and environmental review processes for infrastructure projects.
CEQ developed the CE Works tool in collaboration with the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services. GSA is supporting the accelerated work of the Permitting Innovation Center to advance critical Administration initiatives by providing top tech talent focused on delivering high-quality software development, infrastructure efficiencies and an effective user experience.
For the launch of the CE Works pilot program, CEQ is partnering with the Bureau of Land Management’s Moab Field Office with additional agency partnerships expected in coming months. By leading agency field tests, CEQ is leveraging on the ground experience to advise agencies and promote the widespread adoption of digital solutions to bring speed and efficiency to the environmental review process.
“President Trump has given clear direction to leverage modern technology to expedite and simplify the permitting process,” said Council on Environmental Quality Chairman Katherine Scarlett. “The digital solutions coming out of the Permitting Innovation Center are going to move projects forward with greater speed and efficiency than ever before, and the direct result will be America’s golden age.”
Following the release, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) President and CEO Jay Timmons issued this statement:
Tagged with infrastructureOur government must cut the red tape to speed up manufacturers’ ability to put shovels in the ground, and a modern permitting system needs modern technology. The White House CEQ’s CE Works pilot program offers a promising path to modernize and accelerate federal environmental reviews—an important step to efficiently implementing the National Environmental Policy Act by quickly helping agencies identify cases where time-consuming reviews are not necessary.
Reforming NEPA is a key manufacturing priority and a core pillar of the NAM’s “Manufacturing’s Roadmap to AI and Energy Dominance.” This tool provides agencies with a digital pathway to apply categorical exclusions under NEPA, and increasing the use of CATEX under NEPA—as our roadmap states—will ensure that critical energy and infrastructure projects can advance without unnecessary delays through unnecessary reviews.
Comprehensive, commonsense permitting reform must get done this year to provide certainty for manufacturers. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress and the administration on commonsense priorities to improve the permitting process so America’s manufacturers can invest, grow jobs and compete on the global stage. We appreciate the White House CEQ for developing this innovative tool and taking this step toward meaningful permitting reform.