I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 8954
To promote the development of renewable energy on public lands, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY9, 2024
Mr. G
OSARintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
A BILL
To promote the development of renewable energy on public
lands, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Land Renew-4
able Energy Development Act of 2024’’. 5
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 6
The table of contents for this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
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Sec. 4. Limited grandfathering.
Sec. 5. Disposition of revenues.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
1
In this Act: 2
(1) C
OVERED LAND.—The term ‘‘covered land’’ 3
means land that is— 4
(A) Federal land administered by the Sec-5
retary; and 6
(B) not excluded from the development of 7
geothermal, solar, or wind energy under— 8
(i) a land use plan; or 9
(ii) other Federal law. 10
(2) F
EDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 11
means— 12
(A) public lands; and 13
(B) lands of the National Forest System 14
as described in section 11(a) of the Forest and 15
Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 16
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)). 17
(3) F
UND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the Re-18
newable Energy Resource Conservation Fund estab-19
lished by section 5(c)(1). 20
(4) R
ENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT .—The term 21
‘‘renewable energy project’’ means a project carried 22
out on covered land that uses wind, solar, or geo-23
thermal energy to generate energy. 24
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(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 1
the Secretary of the Interior. 2
SEC. 4. LIMITED GRANDFATHERING. 3
(a) D
EFINITION OFPROJECT.—In this section, the 4
term ‘‘project’’ means a system described in section 5
2801.9(a)(4) of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations (as 6
in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act). 7
(b) R
EQUIREMENTTOPAYRENTS ANDFEES.—Un-8
less otherwise agreed to by the owner of a project, the 9
owner of a project that applied for a right-of-way under 10
section 501 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 11
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1761) on or before December 19, 12
2016, shall be obligated to pay with respect to the right- 13
of-way all rents and fees in effect before the effective date 14
of the rule of the Bureau of Land Management entitled 15
‘‘Competitive Processes, Terms, and Conditions for Leas-16
ing Public Lands for Solar and Wind Energy Development 17
and Technical Changes and Corrections’’ (81 Fed. Reg. 18
92122 (December 19, 2016)). 19
SEC. 5. DISPOSITION OF REVENUES. 20
(a) D
ISPOSITION OFREVENUES.— 21
(1) A
VAILABILITY.—Except as provided in 22
paragraph (2), beginning on January 1, 2025, of 23
amounts collected from a wind or solar project as 24
bonus bids, rentals, fees, or other payments under a 25
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right-of-way, permit, lease, or other authorization 1
the following shall be made available, without fur-2
ther appropriation or fiscal year limitation, as fol-3
lows: 4
(A) Twenty-five percent shall be paid by 5
the Secretary of the Treasury to the State with-6
in the boundaries of which the revenue is de-7
rived. 8
(B) Twenty-five percent shall be paid by 9
the Secretary of the Treasury to the one or 10
more counties within the boundaries of which 11
the revenue is derived, to be allocated among 12
the counties based on the percentage of land 13
from which the revenue is derived. 14
(C) Twenty-five percent shall be deposited 15
in the Treasury and be made available to the 16
Secretary to carry out the program established 17
under this Act, including the transfer of the 18
funds by the Bureau of Land Management to 19
other Federal agencies and State agencies to fa-20
cilitate the processing of renewable energy per-21
mits on Federal land, with priority given to 22
using the amounts, to the maximum extent 23
practicable without detrimental impacts to 24
emerging markets, to expediting the issuance of 25
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permits required for the development of renew-1
able energy projects in the States from which 2
the revenues are derived. 3
(D) Twenty-five percent shall be deposited 4
in the Renewable Energy Resource Conserva-5
tion Fund established by subsection (c). 6
(2) E
XCEPTIONS.—Paragraph (1) shall not 7
apply to the following: 8
(A) Amounts collected under section 9
504(g) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-10
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1764(g)). 11
(B) Amounts deposited into the National 12
Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration 13
Fund under section 200402(b) of title 54, 14
United States Code. 15
(b) P
AYMENTS TOSTATES ANDCOUNTIES.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Amounts paid to States and 17
counties under subsection (a)(1) shall be used con-18
sistent with section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act 19
(30 U.S.C. 191). 20
(2) P
AYMENTS IN LIEU OF TAXES .—A payment 21
to a county under paragraph (1) shall be in addition 22
to a payment in lieu of taxes received by the county 23
under chapter 69 of title 31, United States Code. 24
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(c) RENEWABLEENERGYRESOURCECONSERVATION 1
F
UND.— 2
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is established in the 3
Treasury a fund to be known as the Renewable En-4
ergy Resource Conservation Fund, which shall be 5
administered by the Secretary, in consultation with 6
the Secretary of Agriculture. 7
(2) U
SE OF FUNDS.—The Secretary may make 8
amounts in the Fund available to Federal, State, 9
local, and Tribal agencies to be distributed in re-10
gions in which renewable energy projects are located 11
on Federal land. Such amounts may be used to— 12
(A) restore and protect— 13
(i) fish and wildlife habitat for af-14
fected species; 15
(ii) fish and wildlife corridors for af-16
fected species; and 17
(iii) wetlands, streams, rivers, and 18
other natural water bodies in areas af-19
fected by wind, geothermal, or solar energy 20
development; and 21
(B) preserve and improve recreational ac-22
cess to Federal land and water in an affected 23
region through an easement, right-of-way, or 24
other instrument from willing landowners for 25
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the purpose of enhancing public access to exist-1
ing Federal land and water that is inaccessible 2
or restricted. 3
(3) P
ARTNERSHIPS.—The Secretary may enter 4
into cooperative agreements with State and Tribal 5
agencies, nonprofit organizations, and other appro-6
priate entities to carry out the activities described in 7
paragraph (2). 8
(4) I
NVESTMENT OF FUND .— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Amounts deposited in 10
the Fund shall earn interest in an amount de-11
termined by the Secretary of the Treasury on 12
the basis of the current average market yield on 13
outstanding marketable obligations of the 14
United States of comparable maturities. 15
(B) U
SE.—Interest earned under subpara-16
graph (A) may be expended in accordance with 17
this subsection. 18
(5) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS.—At the end of each 19
fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a report to 20
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House 21
of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 22
and Natural Resources of the Senate that includes 23
a description of— 24
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(A) the amount collected as described in 1
subsection (a), by source, during that fiscal 2
year; 3
(B) the amount and purpose of payments 4
during that fiscal year to each Federal, State, 5
local, and Tribal agency under paragraph (2); 6
and 7
(C) the amount remaining in the Fund at 8
the end of the fiscal year. 9
(6) I
NTENT OF CONGRESS .—It is the intent of 10
Congress that the revenues deposited and used in 11
the Fund shall supplement (and not supplant) an-12
nual appropriations for activities described in para-13
graph (2). 14
Æ
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