Permitting Council Acting Executive Director Releases Quarterly Member Agency Performance Report

WASHINGTON (May 30, 2025) – Today, the Permitting Council Acting Executive Director released the fiscal year 2025 second quarter (January-March 2025) report to Congress, evaluating federal agency compliance with FAST-41 requirements. The report showcases continued agency improvement in the management of FAST-41 covered projects, with a number of projects completing permitting milestones earlier than anticipated.

“The Permitting Council is pleased to demonstrate the measurable results that FAST-41 covered projects achieve through a transparent, predictable, and accountable permitting process,” said Manisha Patel, Permitting Council Acting Executive Director. “The collective work that we are accomplishing will serve as a blueprint for the entire federal government as we work to transform the efficiency of environmental review and authorizations.”

Of the 34 FAST-41 covered projects managed by Permitting Council agencies during the second quarter of 2025, four were new projects and one project, the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, completed federal permitting. 

New Projects:

• Desert Charger Energy Project: A 450-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic power generating facility with an up to 300-MW battery energy storage system sited on U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Riverside County, California.

• Harbor Island Seawater Desalination Facility: A water resources sector project that if permitted will provide up to 100 million gallons per day of drinkable water produced through reverse osmosis processing near Port Aransas in Nueces County, Texas.

• Mosey Solar Project: A 500-MW solar photovoltaic power generating facility and battery storage facility with up to 850 MW of battery energy storage sited on BLM land in Pahrump Valley, Nevada.

• NANA Regional Broadband Network: An approximately 725-mile fiber optic cable route aimed at connecting Alaska Native Villages across vast distances to vital broadband. 

The Alaska LNG Project, an 807-mile liquified gas pipeline, also rejoined the portfolio of projects undergoing active federal review during the quarter to allow for permit renewals and updated biological opinions to be added to the permitting timetable.

Report highlights include:

• Agencies reviewed and satisfied the requirements for updating coordinated project plans for all applicable projects on the dashboard.

• Agencies modified a total of 129 dates across 14 projects in compliance with FAST-41 requirements. Of these 129 dates, 15 were completed early with respect to original permitting timetables.

The quarterly report is now available at permitting.gov.

About the Permitting Council and FAST-41

Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41), the Permitting Council is a federal agency charged with making the federal permitting process more efficient by improving accountability, transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is comprised of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members (including deputy secretary-level designees of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation); and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Permitting Council coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 covered projects are entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 covered projects may be in the energy production, electricity transmission, energy storage, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource, broadband, pipelines, manufacturing, mining, carbon capture, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, and cybersecurity sectors.

The Permitting Council also serves as a federal center for permitting excellence, supporting federal efforts to improve infrastructure permitting including and beyond FAST-41 covered projects to the extent authorized by law, including activities that promote or provide for the efficient, timely, and predictable completion of environmental reviews and authorizations for federally-authorized infrastructure projects.