AI Frontier Institute

A.I. in Environmental Permitting

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North Carolina Senate Bill 1046 (2025 Session, filed April 30, 2026 and referred to the Senate Rules and Operations committee on May 4, 2026) has not been enacted. If enacted, it would have the Environmental Management Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality jointly set up a program that uses artificial intelligence to help agency staff draft and review environmental permits. It would add new G.S. 143B-279.22. That section defines AI (including large language models and retrieval-augmented generation) and "environmental permit." It also requires the program (subsection (b)). The Commission could adopt rules, exempt from G.S. 150B-19.4 and 150B-21.3(b3), that would (subsection (c)): define permissible AI uses; set quality assurance and control requirements; require staff training; set confidentiality, cybersecurity and data protection standards; bar use of applicant information to train vendor or third-party models unless the Department authorizes it under standards approved by the State Chief Information Officer; and set protocols for monitoring and discontinuing AI based on performance and accuracy. No permit application could be approved, denied, delayed, conditioned or otherwise acted on solely on AI output, and staff must independently review and, as appropriate, modify AI-assisted work (subsection (d)). The Department must publicly document the AI systems it uses and tell applicants when AI assisted in reviewing or drafting their permit (subsection (e)). The program must be consistent with State and federal law, delegation agreements, and public notice, comment, hearing and review requirements, and it would not change substantive permit standards (subsection (f)). The Department would report annually by January 15 on the permits where AI was used, performance, processing-time comparisons, errors and corrective actions, and recommendations (subsection (g)). Section 3 phases in the program: stormwater permits (Phase I), new source review air permits (Phase II), erosion and sedimentation control permits (Phase III), and other permits chosen by the Commission (Phase IV). Each phase starts only after the Commission determines that rules, quality assurance and training are sufficiently in place. Section 4 allows temporary AI-expert hires exempt from Chapter 126 classification and salary requirements. Section 5 appropriates $1,000,000 in nonrecurring General Fund money to the Department for 2026-2027, available until expended. Under Section 6, the act would take effect July 1, 2026.

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