Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and OpenAI partner to accelerate federal permitting

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and OpenAI have partnered to explore how AI can accelerate federal permitting for critical infrastructure projects. This collaboration focuses on using coding agents to assist with tasks related to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process, specifically drafting environmental impact statements. A benchmark, DraftNEPABench, was created with 19 subject matter experts to assess AI model performance, revealing a potential for up to a 15% reduction in drafting time—roughly 1 to 5 hours per subsection. The goal is to leverage AI's ability to process large volumes of technical and regulatory documents, verify facts, and draft structured reports, ultimately enabling faster, safer, and more responsible infrastructure development. While the benchmark focuses on well-defined drafting tasks and acknowledges limitations regarding real-world ambiguity, it represents a significant step towards integrating AI into complex government workflows and improving U.S. economic competitiveness.

(Source：OpenAI)