The American Public Power Association on May 15 submitted comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to its request for input on potential future changes to the Nationwide Permit (NWP) program.
Public power utilities rely heavily on NWPs to carry out routine grid maintenance, modernization, and reliability upgrades.
APPA highlighted strong support for the NWP program as a critical tool that enables public power utilities to efficiently maintain, upgrade, and expand electric infrastructure while minimizing impacts on waters of the United States (WOTUS).
APPA’s comments focus on targeted, implementation-level improvements to enhance permitting efficiency and certainty:
• Refining Preconstruction Notification (PCN) requirements to better focus review on higher-risk activities and reduce unnecessary delays for routine, low-impact utility work.
• Clarifying maintenance exemptions to avoid duplicative permitting for activities already exempt under the Clean Water Act.
• Prioritizing energy-related projects in PCN review to align with national reliability and energy security goals.
• Improving alignment with ESA, NHPA, and CWA section 401 processes to reduce redundant reviews and streamline approvals.
• Maintaining key NWP program elements, including the definition of “single and complete linear project” and the Corps’ “no effect” Endangered Species Act determination.
• Enhancing administrative efficiency and consistency, including clearer standards for PCN completeness determinations and more transparent regional conditions.
APPA said its recommendations aim to reduce permitting delays that can disrupt outage planning and emergency response, improve regulatory certainty and consistency across districts, and support the timely deployment of infrastructure needed to meet growing electricity demand and reliability needs.
