This Week in Permitting Tech June 8, 2026: Trump Signs AI Order, EPA Opens Pre-Permit Construction Window
Trump signed the administration's AI executive order June 2, replacing mandatory oversight with voluntary frameworks. EPA proposed letting data center developers break ground before receiving an air permit. In San Francisco, the fight over the OpenGov contract renewal reached the Civil Service Commission.
Trump signs AI executive order with voluntary compliance framework
The White House signed "Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security" on June 2, establishing the administration's formal AI policy posture. The order establishes a voluntary 30-day pre-release model review process, establishes a cybersecurity clearinghouse for AI threat intelligence, and gives the NSA a role in testing frontier models. No mandatory licensing requirements. No binding safety evaluations.
The order is a scaled-back version of what the administration had drafted earlier this year. A broader version circulated in the spring was pulled before signing; the final order shrinks the pre-release review window from 90 days to 30 and converts the review from required to voluntary. Industry groups broadly praised the result. Civil society groups were more mixed.
For permitting technology, what matters is what the order signals about federal AI deployment, not what it requires. The federal government is the single largest buyer of AI tools in many categories, and a voluntary posture tends to accelerate agency procurement timelines while leaving evaluation quality to individual agencies. If you're building permitting AI for federal customers, the signal is green. If you're waiting for federal procurement to develop consistent evaluation standards first, don't hold your breath.
NPR · CNBC · White House
EPA proposes a pre-permit construction window for data centers
The Environmental Protection Agency published a proposed rule on May 13 (91 Fed. Reg. 26958) that would redefine when construction "begins" under the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program. Under the proposal, developers could begin constructing non-emitting components (foundations, building shells, utility infrastructure) before receiving a final air permit. The comment deadline is June 29.
NSR is the federal preconstruction permitting program that requires facilities above certain emissions thresholds to obtain permits before breaking ground. The program has long been a source of tension between development timelines and air quality review: permits can take years, and the current rule treats any physical construction as the start of the clock. Under the proposed change, a data center developer could pour foundations and frame buildings while the air-permitting process continues, as long as the pre-permit work doesn't emit pollutants or influence the Best Available Control Technology analysis.
The "at developer's risk" language in the proposal is load-bearing. EPA is not promising that a project with completed foundations will receive an air permit. A developer who builds first and loses the permitting fight has a very expensive hole in the ground. For well-capitalized developers who have high confidence in their permit outcomes and face pressure on construction timelines, that's an acceptable trade. Whether the approach spreads to other sectors (energy generation, industrial manufacturing) will depend on how this rulemaking survives comment and potential litigation. The data center focus is not accidental: data centers are the administration's most visible infrastructure priority, and NSR has been on industry's complaint list for years.
Federal Register · Perkins Coie · E&E News
San Francisco's PermitSF crisis reaches the Civil Service Commission
San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection signed a $5.9 million contract with OpenGov in 2022 to replace its legacy permitting system with PermitSF. Four years later, according to an SF Standard investigation published May 13, only 7 of 15 permit types had been delivered by the contract's deadline, and more than 50 staff members had filed complaints about the system's performance. Former OpenGov employees quoted in the investigation were direct: "We didn't have any of the stuff we promised."
The contract has since grown. Add the initial $5.9 million, a $22 million licensing arrangement, and the $6.5 million renewal now before the city, and you're at roughly $28.5 million. The Civil Service Commission paused its vote on the renewal after IFPTE Local 21, the union representing city workers, raised a formal objection. A whistleblower, Michael Christensen, alleged intimidation and retaliation after raising concerns internally.
San Francisco is not unique in this pattern. Large-city permitting modernization contracts have a consistent failure mode: vendors sell outcomes at procurement that require organizational change management the city hasn't committed to, and the contract itself doesn't include the process redesign work needed to make the software useful. The result is a system that technically functions but doesn't fit how staff actually work, with escalating costs as the city tries to close the gap. The Civil Service Commission vote is worth watching because it will signal whether SF's political leadership is ready to ask harder questions about what the contract actually delivers.
CEQ Permitting Innovators deadline closes; July Expo ahead
The Council on Environmental Quality's Permitting Innovators Call for Solutions closed June 2 at 6:00 PM Eastern. Administered through NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, the program invited submissions from companies, agencies, and researchers offering tools or approaches to address federal environmental permitting bottlenecks. CEQ will select up to 50 solutions for a July Expo in Washington, DC, where selected entrants will present to federal agencies. A Solutions Catalog will be distributed to agencies across the government.
This newsletter covered the Call for Solutions when it opened earlier this spring. The submission phase is closed; the selection announcement is next. The question worth watching isn't who gets selected for the Expo but what agencies actually do with the Solutions Catalog afterward. Federal agencies receive a lot of catalogs.
Tyler Technologies creates new leadership roles for AI and transactions
Tyler Technologies, the largest publicly traded provider of government software, announced two new leadership positions on June 4: a head of AI and a head of transactions. The company has more than 37,000 government clients and is the dominant vendor in municipal permitting and court management software.
The titles matter less than what they suggest about direction. Tyler has historically grown through acquisition, and the platforms it sells into permitting (Incode and EnerGov, running workflows in hundreds of jurisdictions) have added AI features primarily as bolt-ons to existing products. Dedicated AI leadership is the kind of organizational move that precedes an architecture decision, not a feature release. Whether that produces meaningfully different products for permitting agencies in the next 12 to 24 months is the question to watch.
Permitting Tech is an independent news site covering investment, products, and policy in permitting technology. Written by Boon Sheridan.
