Western governors asked the Senate Energy Committee for three things on geothermal: the permitting shortcuts oil and gas already have, more money for demonstration projects, and continued federal subsurface mapping. A bill for each has now cleared the committee. The permitting bill got there first, in July, seven weeks before the letter.
What the Governors Asked For
The letter is dated September 16, the day of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s hearing on pending legislation. Executive Director Jack Waldorf sent it to Chairman Mike Lee and Ranking Member Martin Heinrich with two resolutions attached, Energy in the West and National Minerals Policy, and asked that both enter the permanent hearing record.
The geothermal ask has three parts: give geothermal the regulatory efficiencies oil and gas already have, expand funding for demonstration projects, and improve regional resource assessments through the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI). The governors call these bipartisan positions; the letter offers no vote tally. The detail sits in their Heat Beneath Our Feet report, which the energy resolution incorporates by reference.
The minerals resolution rides along. It wants faster federal permitting without weaker protections, and it warns that new CERCLA Section 108(b) financial-assurance requirements for hardrock mining would duplicate or supplant state bonding programs.
Where the Bills Stand
The committee’s hearing page lists S. 456 (Cortez Masto), which would speed geothermal exploration and development in previously studied or developed areas; S. 4116 (Hickenlooper), on next-generation demonstration projects; and S. 4870 (Murkowski), the Earth MRI reauthorization. DOE’s Alex Fitzsimmons and USGS’s Sarah Ryker testified.
The permitting ask is furthest along. H.R. 5631, the Geothermal Energy Advancement Act, passed the House by voice vote on June 2 as a package consolidating six bills, according to a law-firm summary. In the Senate-reported text, Section 8 extends EPAct §390 to geothermal. Section 390 gives listed oil and gas activities a rebuttable presumption that a NEPA categorical exclusion applies. That tracks the governors’ first request. Section 2 also sets a 60-day deadline for Interior to act on geothermal permits once required reviews are done, even with a civil action pending. The Senate committee cleared the bill by voice vote on July 29 and reported it without amendment on September 17. E&E said then that Lee and Heinrich were negotiating a broader permitting package that could carry it. No Senate floor date has surfaced.
On demonstrations, Hickenlooper’s office says the committee passed his Geo POWER Act (S. 4116), as amended, on September 30. Per the release, it would require DOE to provide innovative financing for next-generation geothermal projects in new regions. Cortez Masto says her Next Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act, which would set up R&D programs at DOE, cleared the same day and heads to the floor. Both are sponsor accounts. The markup agenda lists the bills but not results.
Earth MRI’s money is the open question. CRS reports the infrastructure law provided $64 million a year for FY2022 through FY2026, and Murkowski’s office says the program’s authorization runs out with FY2026, which closed September 30. S. 4870, her reauthorization with Hickenlooper through 2031, was approved by voice vote on September 30, according to Inside Trade. That is an authorization, not an appropriation. AGU’s summary says the House Appropriations Committee’s FY2027 Interior bill recommends $16.8 million for Earth MRI. No enacted FY2027 figure has surfaced.
One stale number: the minerals resolution cites a DOE estimate that the U.S. is import-reliant for more than half its supply of 31 of 50 USGS critical minerals. Fifty is the 2022 list. The final 2025 list has 60.
edited and authored by Dave with close collaboration by Claude