Will Robinson1, Jai London2, Elizabeth Betancourt3, Jennifer Uyeda Issertell4, Liyuan Guo5
1Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, 1400 10th Street, Sacramento CA 95814
2California Military Department, 10601 Bear Hollow Drive, Rancho Cordova CA 95670
3 Department of Conservation, 715 P Street, MS 1900, Sacramento CA 95814
4 California Department of Technology, 3101 Gold Camp Dr, Rancho Cordova CA 95670
5 Department of Motor Vehicles, 2415 1st Avenue, Sacramento CA 95818
Members of the Governor’s Innovation Fellows explored how a central system could streamline environmental reviews and permitting.
The opportunity
The state’s environmental review and permitting processes protect natural resources. This affects:
- Wildfire resilience
- Clean energy
- Housing
- Infrastructure
- Transportation
- Environmental restoration
But these processes can take a long time. Agencies and developers must navigate a fragmented landscape of regulations and scientific precedents. Overlapping reviews, opaque processes, and outdated approaches delay vital work.
The Fellows saw an opportunity to make these processes more efficient and effective. This would remove administrative hurdles for agencies and applicants. A simpler process would put the focus on results for Californians.
How we helped
We developed a vision for a system called the Knowledge Bank. It would collect, store, and share knowledge, insights, and information. Agencies would use it to support decision-making, learning, and innovation.
The Knowledge Bank would have 2 platforms. The first would be a central permitting platform. The second would be a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) platform.
The Bank would
- Improve transparency
- Reduce delays
- Automate permit submission, review, and issuance
- Convert multi-department reviews into electronic workflows
- Manage documents
- Give easy access to the vast data in CEQA submissions
- Enhance the experience for everyone involved in permitting
Streamlining repetitive tasks and creating automatic checks could transform environmental reviews and permits. One example is clean energy permits. Almost 70% need rework or get rejected because they are incomplete or inadequate.1 The Knowledge Bank would break down silos between departments. It would keep approvals moving and give applicants access to approved permits.
1 GO-Biz Clean Energy Permitting Playbook
What we learned
The Fellows found:
- Application fees could sustainably fund the Knowledge Bank. This would reduce or eliminate reliance on the General Fund.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) could make work more efficient.
- A pre-check feature would check that applications are complete. Incomplete applications often drive delays and costs.
- It could help users find relevant, useful, and usable information from past submissions. This would decrease cost and increase efficiency.
- Organizations would need to shift their mindset. Instead of owning information, they would steward it for statewide use via the Knowledge Bank.
Our approach
We interviewed:
- Stakeholders about review and permit processes. This helped us understand the effects of delays.
- Experts about internal processes. This helped us find ways to integrate environmental and permitting application processes.
We made a 2-year roadmap for a central digital platform supported by AI. This included a tiered governance model
- An executive steering committee to direct policy.
- An interagency review team to oversee technical alignment.
We found strong interest among key stakeholders. As a result, we held 2 Innovation Showcases for vendors. We learned about market capabilities and proof of concept (POC) development.
What’s next
Our work set up the Knowledge Bank to transform environmental review and state permitting. We propose a phased implementation after completing an informational proof of concept. An initial group of agency stakeholders would take part, including the:
- California Energy Commission
- California Department of Transportation
- Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development
- Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation