Geothermal operators get stacked royalty discounts on federal lands

What it does

This bill amends the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to change how the federal government calculates royalties on geothermal energy production. Instead of calculating royalties based on total production from a lease, royalties will now be calculated separately for each individual electric generating facility on that lease, with the 10-year royalty-discount period tied to when each facility begins operating rather than when the lease starts. This allows operators with multiple facilities on a single lease to receive separate, staggered royalty discounts.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a royalty reduction for geothermal operators by restructuring how federal royalties are calculated and discounted. It is functionally a tax/royalty carve-out benefiting a specific energy sector.

What the text implies

• Operators can now stack multiple 10-year discount periods on a single lease by building new facilities sequentially, potentially reducing royalty obligations for decades rather than the original 10-year window.
• The bill does not specify how 'sharing a turbine' is defined or measured, creating potential ambiguity in whether facilities are treated as separate or combined for royalty purposes.
• Federal revenue from geothermal leases will decline, reducing funding available for public lands management, conservation, or deficit reduction without explicit appropriation of savings.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

The bill reduces federal royalty revenue from geothermal leases by allowing operators to claim separate 10-year royalty discounts for each facility rather than one discount per lease. This foregone public revenue—derived from publicly owned geothermal resources—represents a direct transfer of wealth from taxpayers to geothermal operators, with no offsetting public benefit identified in the bill.

Who stands to gain

• geothermal energy operators and developers
• companies operating multiple geothermal facilities on federal leases

Named in the bill

Geothermal Steam Act of 1970, Section 5(a)(1), geothermal electric generating facilities, federal geothermal leases, Department of Interior (implied lessor)

Where it stands

1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.

• Sep 30, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Sep 30, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
• Dec 16, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
• Mar 5, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
• Mar 5, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by Unanimous Consent”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

2 lobbying clients named this bill on 5 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,280,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 10 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.

Mike Kennedy, the sponsor, reported $532,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Fervo Energy Company — $2,220,000 on 4 filings
• Ormat Nevada, Inc. — $60,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.