September 2026
PROBLEM
Order a pizza for delivery tonight and you’ll know when it’s ready, when it leaves the shop, and an estimate for when it will arrive at your door. Order a package online and you can expect to track it across the country. Now try asking your state government about the status of a permit.
In most states, when it comes to permitting infrastructure, it’s legitimately impossible to answer that question. And that has big implications when it comes to affordability in your state.
Almost no state has visibility into why approvals take too long. Many agencies still run paper- and fax-based processes with data timelines, so managers cannot see where work piles up, legislators cannot hold anyone accountable, and staff spend a shocking share of each week answering “where is my permit?” requests by phone and email.
Every month a housing development or a transmission line permit sits in an untracked queue is a month of higher rents and higher power bills. Delayed transmission alone drives up utility bills, and the cost of failing to act on climate change is already landing on household budgets. Permitting delays don’t just slow projects, they chill investment before projects ever break ground.
IDEA
Every state should digitize permitting processes in order to speed up the deployment of critical energy and housing projects.
Beginning with the most critically important state permits, Governors should direct agencies to define target timelines for every permit, set a goal length for each step of the process, and publish actual-versus-target completion timelines for every application within a year.
Then scale the tracker statewide and empower managers to use it as a tool for improving processes. This system will fundamentally change the way staff have done their jobs for years, maybe even decades. Deliberately create training programs, mandate adoption of the new system and provide a helpline for those struggling to use it. And be sure to reward early superusers.
Legislatures should require public reporting of permit timelines by step and permit type, appropriate to the modest funding a digital team needs to maintain it and of the cost savings the system has achieved.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Americans lose faith that government is fair and that their best interests are being represented when every interaction is filled with delays and red tape, or when getting a permit requires hiring a specialist whose value is insider knowledge about how to negotiate with government agencies. Thoughtful regulation should not mean a bureaucratic obstacle course. But somewhere along the way, in state after state, the burden of complying with layers of regulation has too often come to outweigh the benefits.
At a time when demand for energy is skyrocketing, and clean energy, coincidentally, is cheap, it’s essential these projects get built quickly. Across the country, there is a critical need to build more (and affordable) housing. By holding up critical projects, permitting delays drive up utility bills and the cost of housing.
A simple, inexpensive fix like this one lessens frustration, encourages investment, and proves to Americans that government can move quickly in their best interest, without deregulating or hurting other worthy goals, like environmental protection.
EXPECTED OUTCOME
While it may seem odd that letting the government look at a process would make it faster, it shouldn’t be. This is the whole premise of modern logistics. Three things happen when you put permit timelines in public view.
- First, paper based processes become digital ones. Creating a workable tracking system requires the government to eliminate paper based processes that slow things down. Utah built a tracking platform for one of its permitting systems moving from a paper-based system to a fully digital one. Suddenly it was processing applications in days or even hours that used to take over a month. Meanwhile, one state over in Nevada, applications for the same permit can only be submitted by mail, responses take over a month on average.
- Second, managers can finally see where work piles up. When one step routinely blows past its target across dozens of applications, that’s not a mystery anymore — it’s a staffing decision, a training problem, or a process that needs redesigning. Before the dashboard, that pattern was invisible. After it, it’s a bar on a chart that a division chief has to explain.
- Third, the “where is my permit?” calls stop. Agency staff in every state spend a shocking share of their week answering that question by phone and email. A tracker answers it automatically, which frees reviewers to actually review.
EVIDENCE
Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Permitting Enhancement and Evaluation Platform (PEEP) has dropped the processing time for environmental permits by 65% without loosening a single environmental standard. The rules didn’t change. The state just finally had tools that revealed where permits were getting stuck, and then started closing those bottlenecks.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection launched a public permit tracker in January 2025, built by Governor Shapiro’s new digital services team (CODE PA). It helped enable the department to clear a backlog of roughly 2,400 overdue permits, and create a money-back guarantee program, PAyback, that refunds the application fee if the state misses a predetermined deadline. You can only offer a guarantee like that if you have the technology to track permits.
Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency recently launched a public permit tracker with data going back to 2019 and now reports permitting efficiency to the legislature every year. In February 2026, Governor Walz issued an executive order making speed and transparency formal performance metrics for agency leadership. Those metrics are only possible because the state finally has data on permitting timelines.
The underlying logic is the same one that governs modern logistics: you cannot manage what you don’t measure. Visibility into a process is what lets the government redesign and improve it.
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
Benefits:
- Among least controversial permitting reforms available. Digitizing permitting is a proven tool for speeding up permitting for developers, but it also doesn’t change the underlying environmental and community protections that environmentalists and community groups care about.
- Bipartisan. Virginia’s system was built under a Republican governor; Pennsylvania’s and Minnesota’s under Democrats.
Costs and Risks:
- A dashboard does not by itself guarantee fast permits. It reveals where processes fail; leaders still have to act on what it shows, through staffing, training, or process redesign.
- Agencies may resist publishing step-level performance, and legacy IT systems can make step-tracking harder in some programs than others. Starting with one or two permits and building in-house keeps early costs and friction low.
- Executive action alone is fragile. A tracker launched by executive order can lapse under the next administration unless a statute requires the reporting and funds the team.
- Vendor capture is a risk if states default to large IT procurements. The Virginia and Pennsylvania experiences suggest in-house digital service teams can deliver results both faster and cheaper.
FAQ:
Will it be expensive?
No, it is affordable and relatively fast to deploy. Virginia built its tool for under $2 million and in under two years.
How does this fit into the bigger picture of making government work better?
Creates the data foundation for every other reform. From deadline guarantees and performance metrics to staffing decisions and legislative oversight.