A.I. in Environmental Permitting.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 1046

Short Title: A.I. in Environmental Permitting. (Public)
Sponsors: Senator Jarvis (Primary Sponsor).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
May 4, 2026
*S1046-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO PROMOTE TH E USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS A 2
DECISION-SUPPORT TOO L IN THE REVIEW AND DRAFTING OF 3
ENVIRONMENTAL PERMITS. 4
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 5
SECTION 1. Legislative Findings. – The General Assembly makes the following 6
findings: 7
(1) Environmental permitting by the Department of Environmental Quality is a 8
critical function of State government that protects public health, the 9
environment, and the economy of North Carolina. 10
(2) Advances in artificial intelligence, including large language model systems 11
and retrieval-augmented generation tools, offer significant potential to assist 12
agency staff in the drafting and review of environmental permits by 13
accelerating routine tasks, improving consistency, and reducing processing 14
times. 15
(3) The use of artificial intelligence as a permit drafting and permit review tool, 16
subject to independent human review and decision -making by agency staff 17
exercising professional judge ment, is consistent with the principles of 18
government efficiency. 19
(4) A joint initiative between the Environmental Management Commission and 20
the Department of Environmental Quality to use artificial intelligence tools 21
for environmental permitting will benefit permit applicants, regulated entities, 22
State employees, and the general public. 23
SECTION 2. Joint Program. – Article 7 of Chapter 143B of the General Statutes is 24
amended by adding a new section to read: 25
"§ 143B-279.22. Artificial Intelligence in Environmental Permitting. 26
(a) Definitions. – The following definitions apply in this section: 27
(1) Artificial intelligence or A.I. – A machine-based system that processes inputs 28
and generates outputs, such as texts, recommendations , comparisons, 29
summaries, and predictions. Artificial intelligence includes large language 30
models, natural language processing tools, and retrieval -augmented 31
generation systems. 32
(2) Commission. – The Environmental Management Commission. 33
(3) Department. – The Department of Environmental Quality. 34
(4) Environmental permit. – Any permit, certificate, approval, or authorization 35
issued by the Commission or the Department under this Article, Article 4 of 36
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 1046-First Edition
Chapter 113A, Articles 9 or 10 of Chapter 130A, or Articles 21, 21A, or 21B 1
of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes, or the rules adopted thereunder. 2
(b) Joint A.I. Environmental Permitting Program; Established. – The Commission and 3
the Department shall jointly establish a program to implement the use of artificial intelligence to 4
assist agency staff in the drafting and review of applications for environmental permits. 5
(c) Rulemaking. – The Commission may adopt rul es to establish standards and 6
procedures for the use of artificial intelligence systems by agency staff of the Department of 7
Environmental Quality to review and anal yze permit applications and to draft environmental 8
permits. Rules adopted by the Commission pursuant to this section are not subject to 9
G.S. 150B-19.4 or G.S. 150B-21.3(b3), and may do the following: 10
(1) Define the permissible uses of artificial intelligence in the permitting process. 11
(2) Establish quality assurance and control requirements for permits drafted with 12
the assistance of artificial intelligence. 13
(3) Adopt training requirements for agency staff who use artificial intelligence to 14
review applications for environmental permits. 15
(4) Establish confidentiality, cybersecurity, and data protection requirements for 16
information processed, transmitted, stored, or generated through artificial 17
intelligence systems, including requirements to protect confidential business 18
information, trade secrets, security -sensitive infrastructure information, and 19
other information protected from disclosure under State or federal law. 20
(5) Prohibit the use of artificial intelligence systems that use applicant 21
information, permit application materials, or agency records to train a 22
vendor-owned or third -party artificial intelligence model unless expressly 23
authorized by the Department under standards approved by the State Chie f 24
Information Officer. 25
(6) Establish protocols for monitoring and discontinuing the use of artificial 26
intelligence based on the performance and accuracy of artificial intelligence 27
systems. 28
(d) Agency Staff Review; Decision-making. – No environmental permit application shall 29
be approved, denied, delayed, conditioned, or otherwise acted upon solely on the basis of 30
artificial intelligence output. Relevant agency staff shall independently review, evaluate, and, as 31
appropriate, modify an y analysis, recommendation, draft permit, draft permit condition, 32
deficiency letter, or other work product prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence. 33
(e) Transparency. – The Department shall maintain and make publicly available 34
documents describing the artificial intelligence sys tems used by agency staff and the functions 35
performed by those artificial intelligence systems in the environmental permitting process. The 36
Department shall inform an applicant for an environmental permit to the fact that artificial 37
intelligence was used by agency staff to assist in reviewing the permit application or to assist in 38
drafting the permit. 39
(f) Federal and State Law Compliance. – The Commission and the Department shall 40
implement the program established in this section only to the extent consistent with State law, 41
federal law, and federal delegation agreements, federally approved State programs, and all 42
applicable public notice, public comment, hearing, administrative review, and judicial review 43
requirements. Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter the substantive standards 44
applicable to the issuance, denial, modification, or revocation of an environmental permit. 45
(g) Reporting. – No later than January 15 each year, the Department shall submit a report 46
to the Environmental Review Commission, the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on 47
Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources, and the Fiscal Research Division. The report 48
shall contain the following information from the previous year: 49
(1) The number and type of permits for which artificial intelligence was used. 50
(2) A performance assessment for each type of artificial intelligence system used. 51
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Senate Bill 1046-First Edition Page 3
(3) A comparison of the average permit processing time frames for agency staff 1
using artificial intelligence relative to agency staff not using artificial 2
intelligence. 3
(4) A report on each incident in which agency staff have identified artificial 4
intelligence system errors, and the corrective actions taken in response to these 5
incidents. 6
(5) Any recommendations as to whether to continue, expand, modify, or 7
discontinue the use of artificial intelligence systems in the environmental 8
permitting process." 9
SECTION 3. Program Implementation. – The Commission and the Department shall 10
implement the Joint A.I. Environmental Permitting Program (Program) established in 11
G.S. 143B-279.22, as enacted by Section 2 of this act, in the following sequence, with each phase 12
to be i nitiated only upon the Commission having determined that the applicable rules, quality 13
assurance requirements, and staff training are sufficiently in place: 14
(1) Phase I. – Post-construction stormwater permits issued under Article 21 of 15
Chapter 143 of the General Statutes. 16
(2) Phase II. – Major and minor new source review air permits issued under 17
Article 21B of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes. 18
(3) Phase III. – Erosion and sedimentation control permits issued under Article 4 19
of Chapter 113A of the General Statutes. 20
(4) Phase IV. – Any other environmental permit to be determined by the 21
Commission following the Program's extension through the first three 22
implementation phases as provided in this section. 23
SECTION 4. Staffing Flexibility. – Funds appropriated in this section may be used 24
by the Director of the Commission's staff to hire temporary employees with demonstrated 25
expertise in artificial intelligence technologies to provide technical guidance and assistance in 26
implementing A.I. tools for purposes of improving the efficiency and quality of environmental 27
permit processing under this act. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, 28
temporary employment or engagement under this section shall be funded from appropriations 29
made available un der this act and shall not be subject to the position classification or salary 30
schedule requirements of Chapter 126 of the General Statutes. 31
SECTION 5. Appropriation. – There is appropriated from the General Fund to the 32
Department of Environmental Quality the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) in 33
nonrecurring funds for the 2026 -2027 fiscal year to be used for purposes of implementing the 34
Joint A.I. Environmental Permitting Program established in G.S. 143B-279.22, as enacted by 35
Section 2 of this act. Funds appropriated under this section shall not revert at the end of the 36
2026-2027 fiscal year but shall remain available until expended. 37
SECTION 6. Effective Date. – This act becomes effective July 1, 2026. 38