AI Infrastructure, Energy Policy, Civic Tech
Pranava Raparla
I build AI tools for environmental review and permitting, and work on AI policy for science and international partnerships. I'm a Senior Program Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, where I lead the Data Center Engagement Team. I came to DOE as a Presidential Innovation Fellow; before that I was a product manager at Microsoft, working on performance, battery life, and sustainability for operating systems, applications, and silicon.
Views expressed here are my own.
Permitting ReformA searchable permitting-bill explorer with section summaries, verbatim quotations, printed page and line citations, and comparisons with current law and earlier bills. Proposed law; review incomplete.
September 11th Documents ToolkitSearch captured September 11th records, verify quotations, and compare release commitments with observed portal changes. Browser examples use dated evidence; live search is opt-in.
DOE-MCPFour read-only MCP servers query public DOE research, energy, earth and materials data. Each answer carries provenance, coverage and warnings; inactive sources remain inventory.
NEPA-MCP PNNL's federal environmental-data toolkit: 23 MCP servers across 14 agencies for screening and regulatory research. I sponsored the project at DOE and contributed its EPA ACRES Brownfields server.
Data Center Community Benefits Compare operator promises with site evidence, ratepayer pledges, moratoriums, large-load tariffs and regulatory dockets. A policy playbook collects state actions and community-benefit agreements.
Brownfield Opportunities Explore contaminated-site records with separate Grid, Fiber, Water, Land and Logistics findings, environmental screens and siting views. Nearby infrastructure does not prove service, capacity or availability.
FERC Large Load Orders Follow DOE’s large-load directive, FERC’s six regional show-cause proceedings, reforms, filings and stakeholder comments, with verbatim directives linked to source pages.
Robotics Industry & Policy Tracker A sourced record of robotics companies, deployments, funding, U.S.–China comparisons, federal and state policy, supply chains and energy, alongside a draft Physical AI executive order.
Commonwealth-MCP Read-only Virginia public-data tools for jurisdictions, parcels, zoning, addresses, public places, environmental stations, local meetings and the Code of Virginia, with sources and coverage gaps.
Tools, dashboards, and side quests... newest first.
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| BubbleBookA local illustrated-storybook prototype: choose a character, generate a short board book, and read it together. Source code available; no public demo. | Code | Active |
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* Squabble, Rate My Pupusa, and Keeper ran on free Vercel deploys. Their demos are paused; the code is always on GitHub.
General Press Releases
- Energy Department Announces Partnership to Expand Reliable, Affordable Energy Access and Power America's AI Future in Western Kentucky (Department of Energy, July 29, 2026)| Industry Note: DOE Site in Western Kentucky Revitalized with Data Center Campus and Dedicated Energy Project, Creating Jobs and Protecting Residents and Businesses from Costs (NextEra Energy, July 29, 2026)
- NNSA Selects Amentum for AI Data Center and Energy Project at Savannah River Site (Department of Energy, July 20, 2026)| Industry Note: Amentum Selected for the Department of Energy AI Data Center and Energy Generation Project (Amentum, July 20, 2026)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and OpenAI partner to accelerate federal permitting (OpenAI, February 26, 2026)
- Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Paducah Site (Department of Energy, November 4, 2025)
- Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Oak Ridge (Department of Energy, September 30, 2025)
- NNSA Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Savannah River Site (Department of Energy, September 30, 2025)
- Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Idaho National Laboratory (Department of Energy, September 8, 2025)
- PermitAI Ushers in a New Era for Faster, Better Federal Permitting (PNNL News Release, August 21, 2025)
- PNNL PermitAI NEPATECv2 Public Release (PNNL Report, August 20, 2025)
- DOE Announces Site Selection for AI Data Center and Energy Infrastructure Development on Federal Lands (Department of Energy, July 24, 2025)
- Faster, Better Permitting with PermitAI (Department of Energy, July 10, 2025)
- Presidential Innovation Fellows: Pranava Raparla (Presidential Innovation Fellows, GSA, 2023)
Media (Featured, Quoted, or Speaker) & Publications
- DraftNEPABench: A Benchmark for Drafting NEPA Document Sections with Coding Agents (PNNL / PolicyAI, February 2026)
- How a national lab is using data and AI to try to speed up permitting (Nextgov/FCW, August 2025)
- Local Environmental Impacts of Data Center Proliferation (Co-Author, Environmental Law Review, April 2025)
- Data Center Proliferation in the US (ERIS Information, January 2025)
- How a national lab is using data and AI to try to speed up permitting (Quoted, Route Fifty, August 2025)
- How can Load Growth Supercharge the Energy Transformation? (Deploy Together, 2025)
- Using NEPA-Customized AI Tools for More Efficient Environmental Permitting (PNNL Event, 2025)
- Sustainable Infrastructure and AI (Speaker, ANB Systems Energize 2025, January 2025)









