Minnesota Environmental Permit Streamlining Executive Order

Governor Mark Dayton has signed an executive order directing the Minnesota Department Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to take actions to streamline environmental permitting processes used by the agencies and to better align environmental requirements with adjoining States and States within EPA Region 5.

The order requires:

“1. The Commissioners shall accelerate and simplify environmental review and permitting by enabling environmental review and permit applications to be submitted electronically.
2. The Commissioners shall establish a goal for each of their agencies to decide, within 150 days after the agency determines that an environmental or natural resource permit application is complete, whether to issue the permit. The Commissioners shall, within six months after the effective date of this order, submit to the Governor a progress report on meeting the goal and any additional administrative recommendations to further reduce decision times.
3. The Commissioners shall establish a goal for each of their agencies to decide, within 30 days after an environmental impact statement is finally approved, whether to issue the permit. The Commissioners shall promptly report to the Governor any decisions that do not meet the goal. 4. The Commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency shall, within 60 days after the effective date of this order, evaluate and report to the Governor any recommendations the Commissioner deems appropriate to amend Minnesota Statutes, section 115.07, and applicable Minnesota Rules, to be more consistent with federal regulations that, under certain conditions, permit construction to commence before a water discharge permit is issued.
5. The Commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency shall include, in any statement of need and reasonableness for rules to adopt air quality or hazardous waste or water quality standards, an analysis of proposed standards that are more stringent than similar federal standards including justification for why the standards are needed to protect public health and the environment, and a comparison to similar standards in border states and states within Environmental Protection Agency region 5”


The Executive Order will become effective 15 days after publication in the State Register and filing with the Secretary of State.

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