HR5587-119

What This Bill Does

H.R.5587, the HEATS Act, would prohibit the Interior Secretary from requiring a federal drilling permit for geothermal exploration or production on a nonfederal surface estate when the United States owns less than50% of the subsurface geothermal estate to be accessed and the operator submits a State permit. Exactly50% federal ownership does not qualify. The text sets no positive minimum federal share, but a fully private project already lacking a federal permit requirement should not be counted as newly relieved of one. Qualifying activities may start30days after the State permit is submitted, rather than after a new federal drilling approval.

Those activities would not be major federal actions for NEPA section102(2)(C), would require no additional federal action, and would not be subject to Endangered Species Act section7. They would count as federal historic-preservation undertakings only when the State has no law addressing historic-property preservation. This historic-preservation test asks whether a State law exists, not whether it is equivalent to federal review or whether a particular site has been reviewed. The bill remains pending: its latest official action checked September22,2026 was a Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on July15,2026.

Who Benefits and How

Developers of qualifying geothermal projects gain a defined route to proceed without the specified federal permit and review processes, potentially reducing paperwork, delay and related costs. Geothermal drilling contractors could benefit if more eligible projects proceed, but the bill awards them no contract and guarantees no increase in production or employment. Private or State surface owners could likewise gain development opportunities only where ownership, State-permit and land-exclusion conditions are satisfied.

Interior and federal consultation agencies would no longer carry out the exempted permit or consultation work for these activities. State permitting remains a prerequisite, rather than being waived. Electricity customers may benefit if faster development produces useful generation, but no electricity-price reduction, new plant, tax credit or grant is promised by the text.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Nearby residents seeking federal environmental review would lose that procedural route for qualifying activities, and communities or Tribes seeking federal historic-preservation review of off-reservation projects could lose the undertaking-based review route where any applicable State preservation law exists. Reduced review can limit opportunities to identify or address impacts; the bill does not prove that every qualifying project will cause environmental, health or cultural harm. Excluding ESA section7 does not itself expressly repeal every separate wildlife-protection provision.

The exemption does not apply to actions on Indian lands or resources held in trust for Indian Tribes. Indian land includes reservation, pueblo and rancheria lands and specified off-reservation trust, restricted-title and dependent-community lands. This exclusion preserves the existing federal process for those actions; it is not a general exclusion of every project near Tribal cultural resources.

The bill expressly preserves amounts of federal royalties due for electricity production using geothermal resources, other than direct use, and for byproducts. Interior may still inspect and review onsite to ensure production measurement, reporting and royalty accountability. The parenthetical about direct use is not an express new royalty waiver. No appropriation, royalty-rate cut, federal ownership transfer or blanket override of all other laws is provided.

Key Provisions

• Prohibits federal drilling-permit requirements for State-permitted geothermal activities on nonfederal surface estates where the federal share of the accessed geothermal estate is less than50%.
• Authorizes qualifying activities to commence30days after submission of the State permit and requires no additional federal action for those activities.
• Exempts qualifying activities from NEPA major-federal-action treatment and ESA section7, and conditions federal historic-preservation undertaking status on the absence of a State preservation law.
• Protects the exclusion for Indian lands and Tribal trust resources, including specified off-reservation lands.
• Preserves specified federal royalties and permits onsite production and royalty-accountability inspections.