| 1 | 1 | | I |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION H. R. 398 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to provide cost-recovery |
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| 6 | 6 | | authority for the Department of the Interior. |
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| 7 | 7 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 8 | 8 | | JANUARY14, 2025 |
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| 9 | 9 | | Ms. O |
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| 10 | 10 | | CASIO-CORTEZintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the |
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| 11 | 11 | | Committee on Natural Resources |
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| 12 | 12 | | A BILL |
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| 13 | 13 | | To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to provide |
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| 14 | 14 | | cost-recovery authority for the Department of the Interior. |
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| 15 | 15 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 16 | 16 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 17 | 17 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 18 | 18 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Geothermal Cost-Re-4 |
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| 19 | 19 | | covery Authority Act of 2025’’. 5 |
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| 20 | 20 | | SEC. 2. COST RECOVERY FROM GEOTHERMAL LEASING, 6 |
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| 21 | 21 | | PERMITTING, AND INSPECTIONS. 7 |
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| 22 | 22 | | Section 6 of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 8 |
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| 23 | 23 | | U.S.C. 1005) is amended by adding at the end the fol-9 |
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| 24 | 24 | | lowing: 10 |
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| 27 | 27 | | •HR 398 IH |
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| 28 | 28 | | ‘‘(j) COSTRECOVERY.— 1 |
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| 29 | 29 | | ‘‘(1) I |
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| 30 | 30 | | N GENERAL.—During the period that be-2 |
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| 31 | 31 | | gins on the date of enactment of this subsection and 3 |
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| 32 | 32 | | ends September 30, 2032, the Secretary may require 4 |
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| 33 | 33 | | an applicant for, or a holder of, a geothermal lease 5 |
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| 34 | 34 | | to reimburse the United States for all reasonable ad-6 |
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| 35 | 35 | | ministrative and other costs incurred by the United 7 |
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| 36 | 36 | | States from— 8 |
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| 37 | 37 | | ‘‘(A) processing the application for the 9 |
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| 38 | 38 | | geothermal lease, including any application for 10 |
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| 39 | 39 | | an operations plan, geothermal drilling permit, 11 |
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| 40 | 40 | | utilization plan, site license, facility construc-12 |
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| 41 | 41 | | tion permit, commercial use permit, and any 13 |
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| 42 | 42 | | other approval associated with a geothermal 14 |
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| 43 | 43 | | lease; and 15 |
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| 44 | 44 | | ‘‘(B) inspecting and monitoring— 16 |
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| 45 | 45 | | ‘‘(i) geophysical exploration activities; 17 |
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| 46 | 46 | | ‘‘(ii) the drilling, plugging, and aban-18 |
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| 47 | 47 | | donment of wells; and 19 |
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| 48 | 48 | | ‘‘(iii) the construction, operation, ter-20 |
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| 49 | 49 | | mination, and reclamation of any well site 21 |
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| 50 | 50 | | or facility for the utilization of geothermal 22 |
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| 51 | 51 | | resources pursuant to the geothermal 23 |
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| 52 | 52 | | lease. 24 |
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| 55 | 55 | | •HR 398 IH |
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| 56 | 56 | | ‘‘(2) CONSIDERATIONS.—In determining wheth-1 |
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| 57 | 57 | | er to require reimbursement under paragraph (1), 2 |
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| 58 | 58 | | the Secretary shall consider whether there is in ex-3 |
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| 59 | 59 | | istence a cooperative cost share agreement between 4 |
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| 60 | 60 | | the United States and the holder of a geothermal 5 |
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| 61 | 61 | | lease. 6 |
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| 62 | 62 | | ‘‘(3) A |
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| 63 | 63 | | DJUSTMENTS.—The Secretary may re-7 |
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| 64 | 64 | | duce the amount to be reimbursed under paragraph 8 |
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| 65 | 65 | | (1) if the Secretary determines— 9 |
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| 66 | 66 | | ‘‘(A) that full reimbursement would impose 10 |
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| 67 | 67 | | an economic hardship on the applicant; or 11 |
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| 68 | 68 | | ‘‘(B) that a less than full reimbursement is 12 |
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| 69 | 69 | | necessary to promote the greatest use of geo-13 |
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| 70 | 70 | | thermal resources. 14 |
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| 71 | 71 | | ‘‘(4) U |
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| 72 | 72 | | SE.—The amounts reimbursed under this 15 |
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| 73 | 73 | | subsection shall be credited to the currently applica-16 |
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| 74 | 74 | | ble appropriation, account, or fund of the Depart-17 |
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| 75 | 75 | | ment of the Interior as discretionary offsetting col-18 |
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| 76 | 76 | | lections, and shall be available only to the extent 19 |
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| 77 | 77 | | provided in advance in appropriations Acts for— 20 |
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| 78 | 78 | | ‘‘(A) processing the application for geo-21 |
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| 79 | 79 | | thermal leases, including any application for op-22 |
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| 80 | 80 | | erations plans, geothermal drilling permits, uti-23 |
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| 81 | 81 | | lization plans, site licenses, facility construction 24 |
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| 82 | 82 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Feb 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H398.IH H398 |
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| 83 | 83 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4 |
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| 84 | 84 | | •HR 398 IH |
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| 85 | 85 | | permits, commercial use permits, and any other 1 |
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| 86 | 86 | | approval associated with geothermal leases; and 2 |
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| 87 | 87 | | ‘‘(B) inspecting and monitoring— 3 |
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| 88 | 88 | | ‘‘(i) geophysical exploration activities; 4 |
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| 89 | 89 | | ‘‘(ii) the drilling, plugging, and aban-5 |
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| 90 | 90 | | donment of wells; and 6 |
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| 91 | 91 | | ‘‘(iii) the construction, operation, ter-7 |
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| 92 | 92 | | mination, and reclamation of any well site 8 |
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| 93 | 93 | | or facility for the utilization of geothermal 9 |
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| 94 | 94 | | resources pursuant to geothermal leases.’’. 10 |
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| 95 | 95 | | SEC. 3. REPORT. 11 |
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| 96 | 96 | | (a) R |
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| 97 | 97 | | EPORT.—Not later than 5 years after the date 12 |
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| 98 | 98 | | of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior, 13 |
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| 99 | 99 | | in consultation with the geothermal industry and other 14 |
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| 100 | 100 | | stakeholders, shall submit to the Committee on Natural 15 |
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| 101 | 101 | | Resources of the House of Representatives and the Com-16 |
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| 102 | 102 | | mittee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate, 17 |
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| 103 | 103 | | and make publicly available on the website of the Depart-18 |
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| 104 | 104 | | ment of the Interior, a report that includes— 19 |
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| 105 | 105 | | (1) an assessment of how the amendments 20 |
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| 106 | 106 | | made by section 2 of this Act affected the Bureau 21 |
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| 107 | 107 | | of Land Management’s geothermal program; 22 |
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| 108 | 108 | | (2) any recommendations for reauthorization of 23 |
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| 109 | 109 | | section 6(j) of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970, 24 |
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| 110 | 110 | | as added by this Act; and 25 |
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| 114 | 114 | | (3) any other recommendations for updates to 1 |
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| 115 | 115 | | such section and the Bureau of Land Management’s 2 |
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| 116 | 116 | | geothermal program. 3 |
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| 117 | 117 | | (b) C |
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| 118 | 118 | | ONSIDERATIONS.—In developing the report re-4 |
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| 119 | 119 | | quired in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Interior shall 5 |
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| 120 | 120 | | solicit facts or information from the geothermal industry 6 |
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| 121 | 121 | | and other stakeholders. 7 |
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| 122 | 122 | | Æ |
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