Bill speeds up heat-from-earth leases and drilling permits.
S. 4960 — CLEAN Act · Filed by James Risch (R-ID) · Introduced Jul 14, 2026 · Hearing held
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What it does
The bill changes rules for heat-from-earth leases on public land. The Interior Department must hold lease sales every year. It must offer at least 75% of parcels for lease. It can skip parcels only if it writes down why. The bill sets tight deadlines: 30 days to review drilling permits. It gives 10 days after someone sends missing information.
Who it affects
Heat-from-earth firms and drilling companies can build faster. The public may have less time to review plans. People who depend on public lands and water may see weaker protections.
One thing to notice
The Interior Department must lease most parcels unless it writes down a reason. Short deadlines for permit review may not leave time to check for harm.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 14, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- heat-from-earth — Heat energy from inside the Earth, used to make power or heat buildings.
- parcels — Pieces of public land that firms have asked the government to lease.
- Interior Department — The federal office that manages public lands and natural resources.
- drilling permits — Official permission from the government to drill into the ground.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,839 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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