Sponsors (6)
The bill speeds geothermal development and local economic activity by presumptively excluding drilling at previously drilled locations from NEPA review, trading faster clean‑energy deployment and jobs for reduced public input, less oversight, and increased risk of overlooked site‑specific environmental and safety harms.
Energy companies, workers, and rural communities with existing well infrastructure can more quickly site and permit geothermal wells at previously drilled locations, lowering project costs and speeding project starts which produces local jobs and economic activity.
Rural communities and electricity consumers may gain increased low‑carbon electricity supply as administrative hurdles for geothermal development on federal lands are reduced, supporting cleaner generation.
Nearby homeowners and residents will have reduced opportunities for public input because drilling at previously drilled locations is presumptively excluded from NEPA review.
Nearby communities may face increased health and safety risks because curtailed NEPA review could miss site-specific environmental harms (e.g., induced seismicity, groundwater impacts).
Reducing NEPA analysis for these activities could weaken transparency and long-term land-management oversight on federal lands, shifting approvals away from fuller environmental review.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds geothermal to the statute that presumes certain drilling in previously used locations or developed fields is categorically excluded from NEPA review, unless rebutted.
Official title: To amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to expedite geothermal exploration and development in previously studied or developed areas.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by Susie Lee · Last progress February 6, 2025
Amends an existing federal energy law to expand a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) categorical-exclusion presumption that currently covers oil and gas activities so it also covers geothermal development. The change makes certain geothermal drilling activities at previously drilled sites and within developed fields presumptively categorically excluded from detailed NEPA review unless that presumption is rebutted. The amendment is narrow and technical: it inserts “geothermal” alongside oil and gas in the existing statutory language to treat similar geothermal operations the same way those fossil‑fuel operations are treated under the law.