Office of Permitting and Compliance: What’s Changed

As part of the former Department of Energy and Natural Resources’ (DENR) reorganization into C&E in October 2025, several duplicative functions of DENR’s Office of Conservation and Office of Coastal Management were folded into the Office of Permitting and Compliance (OPC). OPC oversees all functions dealing with permitting review and decisions, as well as determining compliance with the conditions of permits issued by C&E.

Previously, permits involving oil/gas and injection wells were handled by the Office of Conservation, while Coastal Use Permits (CUPs) were handled by the Office of Coastal Management. In many cases, the geologic and engineering expertise applied to the different kinds of permits were duplicative of each other, but Conservation staff and Coastal staff were unable to combine efforts due to a statutory firewall. Those enforced silos of effort and expertise were removed in the reorganization, which created an OPC with five major divisions:

• Permitting – handles oil and gas well permitting, setting of drilling units and C&E’s role in determining most feasible cleanup plans in Legacy lawsuits
• Ecology – handles CUP application review, decision-making, and determination of appropriate mitigation for permanent wetlands impacts as necessary
• Engineering – handles permitting of all Underground Injection Control program wells, from disposal and field storage to salt cavern brining and cavern storage
• Geology – handles oversight of state groundwater notification/registration programs and Capital Area Groundwater District permitting
• Compliance – handles proper reporting of oil and gas production/transportation and with interagency affairs associated with CUPs, such as grant management, local coastal programs, and reports of CUP noncompliance and consistency with federal programs

OPC prioritizes science-based permit review and decisions, and wetland mitigation and regulatory oversight to ensure efficient operations and the right balance between economic activity with environmental stewardship.

OPC centralizes these functions to eliminate duplication and ensures that engineers, geologists, and ecologists apply their expertise consistently. This functional realignment allows specialists to focus on science-based regulation while creating clearer permitting pathways for applicants.