Permits Aren’t The Problem. But They Do Need to Be Reimagined.

We know, it’s easy to vilify permits and blame them for many of the problems that exist in energy and carbon capture projects.  “We spend more on permitting than we do on steel,” “Permits take twice as long to get approved and are twice as big as they were years ago,” “Permits should be eliminated.”.... Some version of these comes up in nearly every conversation about energy development.  We understand it.  We’re frustrated too. 

But permits aren’t the enemy.  They serve a critical purpose:  protecting the public from poorly designed or harmful projects.  Permits are actually unsung heroes.  They’re not broken in principle, they’re just overdue for a redesign.

What if developers and their permit writing teams didn’t have to spend days trying to keep data updated across massive, 1,000+ page documents?  What if developers and their teams could have their research and analysis auto populate into an intelligent draft of a permit application template?  What if that permit application template was being constantly fed by the very latest changes from the relevant regulatory agencies?  What if that permit application template was smart enough to know what was missing and could tell the permit writing  team they were only 65% complete with a specific section?

These aren’t hypotheticals, they’re possible today.  With Permeta, developers and their permitting teams can do more of the research and analysis they love and less of the manual coordination and document maintenance.  Instead of chasing updates across massive files, teams stay aligned automatically.

And this is only part of the opportunity.  We’re also beginning to partner with regulators to rethink how applications are reviewed—moving toward a more interactive, transparent process that makes it easier to access information, answer questions, and make informed decisions.

So, here’s to permits– the unsung heroes of responsible energy development.  And here’s to reimagining how they’re built and reviewed in the years ahead.   

We’d love to hear what’s not working and what you think should change.