Daily Energy Insider: Geothermal reform package passes House, advances to Senate

Lawmakers are calling a bipartisan geothermal permitting reform package that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday the most significant such bills in more than half a century since the enactment of the foundational Geothermal Steam Act of 1970.

“With energy bills going up, we need to embrace an all-of-the-above approach to bring these costs down for hard-working Americans,” said U.S. Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), who co-leads the House-approved bill with U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO). “This landmark geothermal package, and the home-grown energy it supports, will do just that.”

The six-bill Geothermal Energy Advancement Act, H.R. 5631, formerly titled the Geothermal Ombudsman for National Deployment and Optimal Reviews Act, now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

“Geothermal energy is uniting Americans from the left, right, and center,” Lee said. “As the United States continues to face both increasing energy demand here at home and rising energy costs from abroad, fully harnessing our domestic geothermal resources is more important than ever.”

The package includes Lee’s bipartisan, bicameral Streamlining Thermal Energy through Advanced Mechanisms (STEAM) Act, H.R. 1077 / S. 456, to expedite geothermal exploration and development. She cosponsored the bill in February 2025 alongside U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT) and U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

If enacted, the STEAM Act would ensure that the geothermal industry has the same flexibility to explore and develop on previously disturbed or studied public lands that the oil and gas industry has had for more than two decades.

The package also includes the Geothermal Energy Opportunity (GEO) Act, H.R. 301, which Reps. Lee and Maloy proposed in January 2025 to reform and hasten the federal permitting process for geothermal projects.

Specifically, H.R. 301 would require the U.S. Department of the Interior to process all applications for drilling permits, licenses, and other authorizations under an existing geothermal lease within 60 days of completing required reviews.

The additional four bills passed as part of the comprehensive H.R. 5631 are the Geothermal Cost-Recovery Authority Act, H.R. 398, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); the Geothermal Gold Book Development Act, H.R. 5617, led by U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ); the former Geothermal Ombudsman for National Deployment and Optimal Reviews Act from Lee and Hurd; and the Geothermal Royalty Reform Act, H.R. 5638, offered by U.S. Reps. Mike Kennedy (R-UT) and Nicholas Begich (R-AK).

According to lawmakers, the United States contains more than five terawatts of geothermal resources, which they say is enough to meet the electricity needs of the entire world.

With the ongoing advancements in geothermal technology, the U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that America will be able to affordably capture enough of its abundant geothermal resources nationwide to power more than 65 million homes within the next 25 years.