I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 301
To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to establish a deadline for
processing applications related to geothermal leasing.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2025
Ms. M
ALOYintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to establish
a deadline for processing applications related to geo-
thermal leasing.
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 ‘‘Geothermal Energy 4
Opportunity Act’’ or the ‘‘GEO Act’’. 5
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•HR 301 IH
SEC. 2. EFFECT OF PENDING CIVIL ACTIONS ON PROC-1
ESSING APPLICATIONS RELATED TO GEO-2
THERMAL LEASING. 3
Section 4 of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 4
U.S.C. 1003) is amended by adding at the end the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(h) E
FFECT OFPENDINGCIVILACTIONS ONPROC-7
ESSINGAPPLICATIONSRELATED TOGEOTHERMALLEAS-8
ING.— 9
‘‘(1) R
EQUIREMENT TO PROCESS APPLICA -10
TIONS.—Notwithstanding the existence of any pend-11
ing civil action that affects an application for a geo-12
thermal drilling permit, sundry notice, notice to pro-13
ceed, right-of-way, or any other authorization under 14
a valid existing geothermal lease, the Secretary shall, 15
unless a United States Federal court vacates or pro-16
vides injunctive relief for the applicable geothermal 17
lease, geothermal drilling permit, sundry notice, no-18
tice to proceed, right-of-way, or other authorization, 19
approve and issue, or deny, each such application 20
not later than 60 days after completing all require-21
ments under applicable Federal laws and regula-22
tions, including the National Environmental Policy 23
Act of 1969, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 24
and division A of subtitle III of title 54, United 25
States Code. 26
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•HR 301 IH
‘‘(2) NO NEW AUTHORITY FOR FEDERAL 1
COURTS.—Nothing in this subsection shall be con-2
strued as modifying any existing authority of a Fed-3
eral court to vacate or provide injunctive relief for 4
a geothermal lease, geothermal drilling permit, sun-5
dry notice, notice to proceed, right-of-way, or other 6
authorization. 7
‘‘(3) D
EFINITION OF AUTHORIZATION .—In this 8
subsection, the term ‘authorization’ means any li-9
cense, permit, approval, finding, determination, or 10
other administrative decision issued by a Federal 11
agency, or any interagency consultation, that is re-12
quired or authorized under Federal law or regula-13
tions in order to site, construct, reconstruct, or com-14
mence operations of a geothermal project adminis-15
tered by a Federal agency.’’. 16
Æ
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