The House has approved a geothermal legislative package, made up of parts of several Republican- and Democratic-authored bills aimed at accelerating approvals for geothermal projects, which generate clean energy by drilling deep into the Earth to access stored heat.
The Geothermal Energy Advancement Act passed in a voice vote Tuesday afternoon, a significant show of bipartisanship focused on bolstering domestic energy development ahead of the midterm elections, as surging energy and electricity prices are quickly becoming a key issue for voters across the country.
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Geothermal energy can provide electricity and heating by extracting heat from underground reservoirs of hot, typically porous, rocks saturated with water. To generate energy, the extracted heat is used to produce steam, which then travels through piping and turbines to create electricity.
It is a clean, renewable source of energy that has been used for hundreds of years, heating natural hot springs, rivers, and pools in regions such as Iceland and New Zealand.
Extracting geothermal energy was long restricted to areas with high levels of volcanic activity and movement of tectonic plates, which more easily bring heat from the Earth to the surface. The oil and gas drilling industry, however, has indirectly made geothermal energy more accessible across the globe, as technological developments such as hydraulic fracturing allow developers to target the Earth’s internal heat several miles deep into the ground.
These advancements have made geothermal an increasingly attractive option for both Republican and Democratic lawmakers seeking to secure as much reliable energy as possible to meet surging demand brought on by artificial intelligence, rapid growth in domestic manufacturing, and increased electrification. Geothermal energy is estimated to have a capacity factor of 65% — defined by the Energy Department as the amount of electricity a generator can produce when it’s running at full blast — second only to nuclear power among energy sources.
Yet geothermal energy projects face extensive federal permitting requirements that critics say impose costly delays and prevent the clean resource from being a commercially viable alternative in the markets.
The bipartisan legislation passed Tuesday is meant to address that problem.
The bill was first introduced by Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO) and would require Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to, within 60 days, appoint a geothermal ombudsman who would act as a liaison among officials and offices within the Bureau of Land Management to streamline permitting for geothermal projects.
The bill would also require the interior secretary to establish a geothermal permitting task force within 60 days, which would support the ombudsman.
The bill would also require the secretary to process applications on geothermal-related projects — such as leasing, drilling permits, or other authorizations — within 60 days. This provision was added from a separate bill introduced by Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT).
Hurd’s bill was also amended to include a provision from a bill put forth by Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) that would expand a categorical exclusion from National Environmental Policy Act requirements for certain geothermal projects.
Categorical exclusions apply to certain actions or projects that do not require extensive environmental assessments as required under NEPA.
Passage of the bill comes as Democrats and Republicans have been debating for months over broader legislation that would streamline and accelerate the federal permitting process for energy and infrastructure projects.
Permitting reform has been a priority for both parties in this Congress, as lawmakers across the aisle have complained that projects such as pipelines, transmission infrastructure, highways, and even housing have been hamstrung by lengthy environmental reviews, court challenges, and bureaucratic red tape.
Policymakers have focused on reforming NEPA, a 55-year-old law that requires federal agencies to consider environmental effects when issuing permits for new projects.
While the House passed legislation last December aimed at reforming NEPA and modernizing the permitting process, the Senate has yet to release any text of its version of the reforms.
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Democrats in the upper chamber have largely been hesitant to sponsor Republican-led legislation, over concerns that the Trump administration would not fairly implement any reforms on renewable energy projects such as wind and solar.
In recent weeks, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have both indicated that progress is being made on a deal. Time is running out before Congress breaks in August, however, and some proponents of permitting reform are growing doubtful that a package will be able to get through both chambers after recess so close to the midterm elections.
