Geothermal Energy Opportunity Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill led by the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Curtis), H.R. 7370, the GEO Act.
The GEO Act would support the efficient approval of geothermal permit applications without sacrificing thorough review under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.
I thank Republicans for their willingness to work across the aisle on improvements to this legislation. Through this bipartisan work, we were able to safeguard important community protections to ensure compliance with Federal laws. This way, we can ensure projects are built in a way that is safe for the communities and the environment.
We have also updated the timelines for approval so that we equip the Bureau of Land Management with adequate time to process applications. With these safeguards in place, this bill takes a step toward sustainably building a clean-energy future that centers our people and our planet.
Geothermal energy will play an especially important role in this clean-energy future. Geothermal has the smallest footprint of any energy-generation technology and uses significantly fewer resources than other sources, especially conventional fossil fuels.
According to the Department of Energy, geothermal uses about 1 to 8 acres per megawatt versus 5 to 10 acres per megawatt for nuclear operations and 19 acres per megawatt for a coal power plant.
Deploying more geothermal will allow us to protect strained resources while protecting the clean energy we know we need, and the GEO Act will assist in the deployment of this exciting technology by ensuring timeliness in permit-approval processes for geothermal energy.
Importantly, it does so without sacrificing the holistic review of environmental and community impacts during the permitting process.
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Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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