[House Report 113-690]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


113th Congress  }                                      {        Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session     }                                      {       113-690
======================================================================
 
            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.