Meet Fred Wagner

You’ve spent decades helping clients navigate the complex world of environmental law, permitting and litigation. Looking back, what do you see as the most rewarding part of supporting infrastructure and commercial development projects that have real impact on communities?

I’ve had the unique opportunity to guide projects through the permitting process and then see how those projects have transformed communities. For example, early in my career, I worked on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and historic preservation aspects of the downtown Washington, D.C. sports arena. The owner of the local basketball and hockey franchises committed to a project that would rebuild an area of DC that had not fully recovered from unrest in the 1960s. The project, now called the Capital One Arena, sparked a rebirth of the Gallery Place neighborhood which remains one of the city’s most vibrant entertainment venues.

Your career spans projects as varied as high-speed rail, major highway expansions and large-scale port and energy developments. What lessons from those experiences do you bring to Jacobs in helping clients deliver projects that balance growth with environmental responsibility?

Community engagement is an essential aspect of successful project development. As the expression goes, “you can’t please all the people, all the time.” But project proponents can learn about what animates community concerns and then partner with stakeholders to address those concerns during project planning. While a developer cannot expect to eliminate all opposition, productive community engagement usually results in more impactful projects.

Environmental reviews often sit at the intersection of science, policy and law. How do you see Jacobs’ integrated knowledge giving clients an advantage in achieving both timely approvals and strong environmental outcomes?

Working closely with technical teams across the company allows me to offer my expertise in how to best communicate complex scientific analyses. The most elegant and sophisticated scientific analysis won’t advance project decision-making or answer community concerns if it is not written in an easy-to-understand way. With current law requiring shorter and more focused environmental documents, this skill is paramount. After a long legal career, I understand the importance of being able to reduce complicated details into clear language. I also work with teams to identify the most essential details of their analysis to address the most significant environmental impacts.

The pace of regulatory change — at both the federal and state levels — has been remarkable. How are you helping clients anticipate and adapt to these shifts so that their infrastructure projects can move forward without costly delays?

It’s not easy! With all the dramatic shifts in policy, my strategic advice admittedly focuses more on the “adapt” part of your question! But one truth remains — good planning can help developers meet all environmental standards, even those standards that experience changes.

You were directly involved in high-profile matters, including the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition rail line case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. What insights from that experience can help Jacobs’ clients better prepare for the kinds of legal and policy challenges that can shape project outcomes?

The Supreme Court litigation taught me a great deal, but one lesson stood out: environmental advisors can quickly get lost in a project’s complex details, while disputes often hinge on a surprisingly narrow set of facts and decisions. Identifying those key points during the environmental review and permitting processes is critical. You may not be able to predict with 100% accuracy, but considering  how disputes might evolve into political and legal challenges even many years in the future can assist subject matter experts create defensible work products.

As you look ahead, what trends in infrastructure planning, permitting and environmental review do you think will most define the next decade, and how is Jacobs positioning to lead in this space?

We all need to channel our inner “Maverick” from Top Gun — “I feel the need for speed!” No matter who occupies the White House or who controls Congress in the coming years, the environmental professional's community must create a framework to produce shorter, more effective technical and NEPA documents. We can’t do that by simply doing our work more quickly. We must do things differently. Jacobs is working with its public and private sector clients to reinvent how we comply with federal environmental review and permitting requirements. Working together, we can produce a durable practice that will adjust to the ever-changing political landscape.