Enhancing Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill adds a geothermal exploration provision to the Geothermal Steam Act. Qualifying leaseholder exploration wells and defined covered activities would not count as major federal actions under NEPA section 102(2)(C). Exploration qualification requires a final cemented casing diameter below 13 3/8 inches, less than eight acres of unreclaimed disturbance at any one time excluding access roads, completion in under 180 days including removal of surface infrastructure, and restoration within three years unless the area is used for subsequent energy development under the lease.
Who Benefits and How
Geothermal leaseholders and exploration contractors gain reduced environmental-review barriers for qualifying work. Covered activities separately include geotechnical investigations, off-road travel in authorized or planned rights-of-way, and work on existing permanent or temporary roads in those rights-of-way. Those activities concern geothermal exploration, development or production, including direct use; the exploration-well acreage and time limits should not be assumed to restrict every separately defined covered activity. Geothermal project employees and electricity consumers could benefit from successful development, but price or employment gains are not guaranteed.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Leaseholders must provide Interior at least 30 days' notice before exploration drilling and satisfy the qualifying conditions. Interior and Bureau of Land Management staff must determine the applicable framework. Nearby residents, Tribal communities and conservation organizations may lose an opportunity for project-specific NEPA scrutiny for excluded actions, while other applicable laws remain. The reported text deletes the introduced geothermal leasing priority-area program, including its three-year designation deadline, five-year reviews, programmatic environmental analysis and constraints on further NEPA analysis. Findings about existing categorical exclusions remain nonoperative.
Key Provisions
- Provides an exclusion from major-federal-action treatment under the cited NEPA provision for qualifying exploration projects and separately defined covered activities.
- Limits qualifying wells by casing diameter, disturbed acreage, project duration and restoration conditions.
- Requires at least 30 days' notice before exploration drilling.
- Adds certain geotechnical investigations and existing-right-of-way travel and road work to covered activities.
- Repeals the introduced priority-area designation proposal and its separate programmatic-review framework.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Exclude specified geothermal exploration projects and related activities from treatment as major federal actions under the cited NEPA provision.
Key Policy Areas
Energy, Environment, Public Lands
Primary Purpose
Exclude specified geothermal exploration projects and related activities from treatment as major federal actions under the cited NEPA provision.
Policy Domains
Enhancing Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act
Identified Gains
- Geothermal leaseholders
- Geothermal exploration contractors
- Geothermal project employees
- Electricity consumers
Identified Costs
- Department of the Interior
- Bureau of Land Management
- Nearby residents
- Affected Tribal communities
- Conservation organizations
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
ReportedPlaced on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 674.
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. …
Additional sponsors: Ms. Maloy, Mr. Kennedy of Utah, and Mr. …
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute …
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Discharged
Subcommittee Hearings Held
Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.
Mr. Fulcher introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bureau of Land Management, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior
Department of the Interior faces effects in multiple directions
Positive-direction: Bureau of Land Management
Negative-direction: Department of Energy
Federal geothermal leaseholders, Geothermal developers in priority areas, Geothermal developers seeking priority-area treatment
Positive-direction: Federal geothermal leaseholders, Geothermal developers in priority areas
Negative-direction: Geothermal developers seeking priority-area treatment
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "bureau"
- → Bureau of Land Management
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of the Interior
- "leaseholder"
- → Holder of a federal geothermal lease
- "energy_secretary"
- → Secretary of Energy, only in the removed priority-area proposal
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Leaseholder exploration meeting the casing, disturbance, duration and restoration conditions.
Specified geotechnical, right-of-way travel and existing-road activities relating to geothermal exploration, development or production.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology