Tools and Services

Tactical and Strategic Guidance

Project Advocacy – Project developers seeking tactical guidance on specific projects will receive customized and actionable solutions from permitting experts with a proven track record of success. TPI delivers tailored advocacy that supports the development of relationships with Congress, policy champions and permitting authorities across the country to create common understanding, a predictable timeline, and an efficient review process. 

Project Planning and Strategy - Too often, initial missteps in the project planning phase translate into significant challenges to project delivery. TPI identifies potential risks and opportunities early in the process to eliminate unforeseen obstacles and costly delays. We work to understand your needs and constraints, match those up with our expertise and experience with laws regulations and specific agency cultures to advise you on choices that can get your project on the right track from the beginning or get it back on track.

Federal Rulemaking Input and Analysis

While Congress grants federal agencies the authority to regulate certain activities, public comments and expert analysis are key to ensuring that those regulations are both reasonable and effective. The Permitting Institute actively monitors the Federal Register and offers input on proposed rules that will impact the infrastructure permitting process.

TPI has offered comments on several proposed rules, including:

NEPA Implementing Regulations Revisions - Click here to read

Migratory Bird Permits: Authorizing the Incidental Take of Migratory Birds - Click here to read

NOI to Amend Land Use Plans Regarding Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation - Click here to read

Proprietary Tools

The Permitting Institute works closely with members to support, monitor, and implement strategies and tools that improve the decision-making processes. We hold great respect for the responsibility held by each authorizing agency to protect the public and the environment. While supporting efficient and transparent facilitation of each agency’s authorities and responsibilities, we also assist agencies and project developers to coordinate each project’s review in a manner that eliminates redundancy and delivers a predictable permitting timeline using tools that may include:

  • Geographic Information System (GIS) Screening Tool

  • Risk Assessment Based on GIS Screening Tool Results

  • Sector specific permitting roadmaps for maximum alignment and speed

  • Next Generation Planning Tool for Government-wide Schedule Management

The goal is to “give predictability and transparency to project sponsors that oftentimes have to navigate this bureaucratic maze without anyone really shepherding the process with a definitive timeline,” said Alex Herrgott, associate director of infrastructure for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

- Washington Post, 2018

Training

The durability and broad adoption of lasting reforms to the permitting process must be institutionalized to provide communities, industries and investors long-term confidence in a predictable process.

The Permitting Institute offers customized workshop and training services to public and private sector stakeholders, contractors and practitioners, Tribal nations and local communities. We address gaps in institutional capacities to establish consistency and uniformity in decision that effect project delivery. Additionally, a standardized application of laws and regulations is essential to providing a reasonable timeline for reviews, securing expedient decisions, and getting projects built.

Programs and services that reduce risk and bring clarity to the approval process include:

Strategic Management - Outline a comprehensive strategy and project roadmap to streamline approval processes.

Risk Assessment Action Plan - Deliver an issue or project specific workshop that identifies opportunities to de-risk the project schedule and budget.

Redundancy Identification – Incorporate known regulatory levers into the plan and align various governmental interests to expedite the project review.

Removing Roadblocks – Prepare an agency engagement plan that notifies all appropriate stakeholders and removes threats presented by inaction or poor communication.

Conflict Crosscheck – Utilize the most efficient agency tools and proactively seek the best available science to build consensus among all stakeholders.

Agency Accountability – Proven government management best practice implementation will provide a single project schedule that encourages agency action and accountability