A Bloomberg double header

It’s always gratifying when reporters call Dawson & Associates for insights on federal permitting and related issues. Collectively, our firm includes approximately20 former district and division commanders from the US Army Corps of Engineers and several former senior civilian Corps policy experts. 

Recently Stephen Lee at Bloomberg reached out for comment on the White House's new order pushing AI into federal environmental permitting. Our colleagues Col. (Ret) Edward Fleming, who commanded the Army Corps of Engineers Charleston & New Orleans Districts, and Mark Sudol who ran the Regulatory Office at USACE Headquarters spoke with Lee. 

Both of them are quoted in the Bloomberg article:

For example, instead of relying on aerial photos that in some cases go back to the 1950s to identify whether a piece of property is a wetland, an agency could use AI to analyze the local hydrology and determine if the plot is intermittently wet or had been wet in the past, said retired Col. Edward Fleming, who worked on many permits as district commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District.

AI could also help agencies sort through hundreds of thousands of ancient applications, analyses, environmental impact statements, previous permits, and other data for a given parcel of land, said Fleming, now an executive vice president at Dawson & Associates.

“That could save weeks’ worth of work,” he said.

Human Oversight

Human beings at the agencies should still review every permit document, cautioned Mark Sudol, former chief of the Army Corps’ regulatory program.

But it’s not clear whether the mere use of AI to generate a permitting document could expose the agency to a legal challenge. “If Company X signs the document, it doesn’t matter how they got the information—they have to stand behind it,” Fleming said.

For the full article, click here (subscription required).