Sponsors (4)
The bill aims to accelerate commercialization of next‑generation geothermal—potentially expanding clean power and local jobs while reducing developer risk—but does so by authorizing open‑ended public funding and prioritizing larger projects, which raises taxpayer exposure, failure risk, and equity concerns for smaller/community‑scale options.
Electricity consumers and regional grids will likely gain more clean, reliable geothermal power as demonstration projects and milestone‑based commercialization accelerate next‑generation geothermal deployment.
Utilities, energy companies, and smaller developers face lower investment and technical risk because milestone‑based financing and shared public resource data reduce upfront exploration/drilling uncertainty and attract private capital.
Rural communities, tribal lands, and areas with nontraditional geology can gain access to new local clean power generation and potential local jobs as geothermal technology expands into diverse U.S. geologies and regions.
Taxpayers (and potentially ratepayers) may shoulder significant new federal spending or higher costs because the bill authorizes open‑ended funding and supports early‑stage demonstrations before commercial viability is proven.
If demonstration projects fail to reach technical milestones or do not attract follow‑on private investment, public funds could be spent with limited long‑term energy output or economic return.
Prioritizing large (≥30 MW) commercial projects risks excluding smaller community‑scale or distributed geothermal opportunities that could benefit local resilience and small jurisdictions.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Creates a DOE milestone-based geothermal demonstration program to fund next-generation geothermal projects in low-permeability reservoirs, prioritizing new regions, data-sharing, and projects enabling ≥30 MW.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by John Wright Hickenlooper · Last progress March 17, 2026
Creates a Department of Energy milestone-based demonstration program to finance and accelerate commercial-scale geothermal projects in low-permeability and impermeable reservoirs, especially in regions without existing geothermal generation and on or near Indian land. The program must be set up within 180 days, prioritize projects that generate/share subsurface characterization data and enable at least 30 MW of commercial geothermal capacity, and fund multiple projects across different states and sponsors using milestone-based awards; funding is authorized as needed.