[House Report 113-690]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
113th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session } { 113-690
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EXPLORING FOR GEOTHERMAL ENERGY ON FEDERAL LANDS ACT
_______
December 22, 2014.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on
the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Hastings of Washington, from the Committee on Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
together with
DISSENTING VIEWS
[To accompany H.R. 1363]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 1363) to promote timely exploration for
geothermal resources under existing geothermal leases, and for
other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably
thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 1363 is to promote timely exploration
for geothermal resources under existing geothermal leases.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
Geothermal energy can be used for electricity production,
for commercial, industrial, and residential direct heating
purposes, and for heating and cooling through geothermal heat
pumps. To develop geothermal electricity, wells bring the
geothermal water to the surface, where its heat energy is
converted into electricity at a geothermal power plant.
Geothermal heat can also be used without involving a power
plant or heat pump for applications such as space heating and
cooling, food preparation, greenhouses, and agriculture.
Currently, the process of drilling of a well simply to test
for geothermal resources requires both a permit and a National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review and frequently takes 10
months, but can be tied up in the review process for more than
a year. When a company has to drill multiple holes for
exploration, and during the process drill additional subsequent
holes which require repeating this process, this prevents
geothermal resources from being expeditiously discovered and
utilized.
Recently obtained documents from the Department of Energy
show that the geothermal NEPA process takes five to seven
years--longer than both oil and gas projects and solar and wind
projects, which take three to five years and one and a half
years, respectively. The geothermal NEPA review process
requires over 175 document sets for each project, which equates
to hundreds or even thousands of pages of documents for one
project. These requirements are significant setbacks and lead
to extremely long delays in geothermal production.
H.R. 1363 will streamline the NEPA process for a geothermal
test project which will allow a geothermal project to quickly
move forward if resources are found. Streamlining this
permitting process will allow geothermal resources to be
expeditiously discovered and utilized.
COMMITTEE ACTION
H.R. 1363 was introduced on March 21, 2013, by Congressman
Rauul Labrador (R-ID). The bill was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. On July 29, 2014,
the Subcommittee held a hearing on the bill. On September 18,
2014, the Full Natural Resources Committee met to consider the
bill. The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources was
discharged by unanimous consent. No amendments were offered and
the bill was adopted and ordered favorably reported to the
House of Representatives by voice vote.
COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.
COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII
1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the
Rules of the House of Representatives requires an estimate and
a comparison by the Committee of the costs which would be
incurred in carrying out this bill. However, clause 3(d)(2)(B)
of that rule provides that this requirement does not apply when
the Committee has included in its report a timely submitted
cost estimate of the bill prepared by the Director of the
Congressional Budget Office under section 402 of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Under clause 3(c)(3) of rule
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section
403 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee has
received the following cost estimate for this bill from the
Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
H.R. 1363--Exploring for Geothermal Energy on Federal Lands Act
H.R. 1363 would exempt certain geothermal exploration
projects from complying with provisions of the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Based on information from the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), CBO estimates that
implementing the legislation would have no significant effect
on the federal budget. Enacting H.R. 1363 would not affect
direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go
procedures do not apply.
Under the bill, geothermal exploration projects that meet
certain requirements related to the duration of the activities,
the amount of land disturbed, and the restoration of the
project site would not be required to obtain an environmental
impact review under NEPA. The Secretary of the Interior would
have 10 days to review proposed projects to determine whether
they meet the requirements necessary to obtain a NEPA
exemption. Based on information provided by BLM, CBO estimates
that implementing the legislation would have a negligible
effect on the agency's workload.
H.R. 1363 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jeff LaFave. The
estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
2. Section 308(a) of Congressional Budget Act. As required
by clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives and section 308(a) of the Congressional Budget
Act of 1974, this bill does not contain any new budget
authority, spending authority, credit authority, or an increase
or decrease in revenues or tax expenditures. Based on
information from the Bureau of Land Management, CBO estimates
that implementing the legislation would have no significant
effect on the federal budget.
3. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or
objective of this bill is to promote timely exploration for
geothermal resources under existing geothermal leases.
EARMARK STATEMENT
This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives.
COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4
This bill contains no unfunded mandates.
COMPLIANCE WITH H. RES. 5
Directed Rule Making. The Chairman does not believe that
this bill directs any executive branch official to conduct any
specific rule-making proceedings.
Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was
not included in any report from the Government Accountability
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law
98-169) as relating to other programs.
PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW
This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or
tribal law.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
If enacted, this bill would make no changes in existing
law.
DISSENTING VIEWS
H.R. 1363: The Exploring for Geothermal Energy on Federal Lands Act
While the goal of this legislation--increasing the
development of geothermal energy on Federal lands--is laudable,
the way this bill tries to accomplish that goal would be
inappropriate and ineffective. Unfortunately, this bill uses
the same shopworn approach that the Majority uses time and time
again when they want something to move faster: short-circuit
environmental reviews. Not only will this not fix the problem
the bill is purportedly trying to solve, but it will result in
potentially harmful unintended consequences.
To start, the basic need for this legislation has not been
demonstrated by the sponsor or advocates. No data was provided
to show that geothermal test wells have been unduly delayed due
to environmental reviews under the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). In fact, at the Subcommittee's hearing on
the bill, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) testified that
they use categorical exclusions to exempt geothermal test wells
from further NEPA review two-thirds of the time, and when
additional review is warranted, the environmental assessments
typically take less than 90 days.
Routine geothermal test wells are clearly already exempt
from significant environmental review. But in those cases where
the well would be in a particularly sensitive area, or might
have some other extenuating circumstance, a closer look is
warranted. However, this bill would eliminate the ability for
the BLM to take that closer look, regardless of the
circumstance. The precedent for this was established by the
categorical exclusions established in Section 390 of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005. In rulings that we believe are strongly
contrary to Congressional intent, courts have held that these
statutory categorical exclusions are not subject to the
extraordinary circumstances review that all other categorically
excluded actions receive. That means that BLM would not be able
to even check and see if a well posed a significant threat to
human health or safety or impacted the use of Native American
sacred sites.
Taking shortcuts around fundamental environmental reviews
and opportunities for public input is not the right way to
encourage the development of renewable resources in this
country. We encourage the Majority to support policies that
would be far more effective, such as extending tax incentives
for renewable development, increasing funding for renewable
energy research, and enacting a policy to address the
significant threat posed by climate change. H.R. 1363 creates
an unnecessary environmental loophole that will have no
positive impact on geothermal development, and as such we
oppose it.
Peter DeFazio,
Ranking Member, Committee on
Natural Resources.
Rush Holt,
Ranking Member, Subcommittee
on Energy & Mineral
Resources.