The First 100 Days: A Permitting Playbook - #2 Measure Your Bottlenecks

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Written By Nikki Chiappa

When someone breaks an arm, the doctor’s first order isn’t to wrap it in a cast. It’s to order an x-ray. The imaging might indicate a cast is needed, but it could also reveal complex fractures in need of a surgical fix. Either way, the doctor can’t prescribe a solution until she understands exactly what’s broken.

Governors have almost certainly heard that permitting in their state is too slow. What they most certainly lack is the empirical evidence to explain why. Without an x-ray, decision makers aren’t likely to prescribe the proper reforms.

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Nikki Chiappa

Nikki is an expert in decarbonization and permitting policy with a strong track record of advancing pragmatic, market-driven solutions to clean energy infrastructure challenges. As the Permitting Innovation Lead at EPIC, she works with decision makers to better understand permitting bottlenecks and harness innovative solutions to break through them.

Her past work contributed to national conversations on the role of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in decarbonization, with her research and analysis featured in The Washington Post, Politico, S&P Global and Michael Cembalest’s Eye on the Market Report (2025).

Nikki has also worked in state-level clean energy advocacy at Clean Tomorrow, Advanced Energy United and the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, a regional affiliate of the Solar Energy Industries Association. In these roles, she helped build strong bipartisan coalitions to support offshore wind energy transmission expansion, streamlined rooftop solar permitting and improved stormwater management practices for utility scale solar projects.

She holds a B.A. in Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government and an M.P.A. in Environmental Policy, both from American University, and helped reestablish the D.C. chapter of Young Professionals in Energy in 2024.

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