Congress fast-tracks geothermal permits while blocking legal challenges

What it does

This bill creates a Geothermal Ombudsman and Permitting Task Force within the Bureau of Land Management to streamline geothermal project approvals on federal lands. It requires the BLM to approve or deny geothermal permits within 60 days of completing environmental reviews, even if lawsuits are pending (unless a court blocks the permit). It allows the BLM to charge geothermal companies for permitting and inspection costs, updates permitting guidelines, and modifies royalty calculations for geothermal electricity generation to apply a 10-year reduced-rate period after a facility begins operating.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a 60-day approval mandate that overrides pending litigation, paired with cost-recovery authority and royalty discounts. While framed as renewable energy advancement, the operative effect is to insulate geothermal permits from legal challenge and reduce public revenue from geothermal leases.

What the text implies

• The 60-day approval mandate 'notwithstanding the existence of any pending civil action' effectively bars courts from enjoining permits during the approval window, shifting litigation risk to post-issuance challenges when the project may already be underway.
• The 10-year royalty reduction for geothermal electric facilities (Section 7) creates a permanent revenue loss to the federal government and states, as the reduced rate applies to the first decade of operation for any facility, regardless of when it was leased.

The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.

Who stands to gain

geothermal energy developers and operators; renewable energy companies with geothermal projects; engineering and permitting service providers