Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7409, the HEATS Act, introduced by my good friend from California, Mrs. Kim.

This is an important piece of legislation that will increase our energy security and reliability and help lower energy costs for Americans across this great Nation.

As is the case with much of our domestic energy production, geothermal energy is often developed on checkerboard parcels of land. Such a project often has a footprint encompassing Federal, State, and private lands.

When that is the case, it is a headache for our energy producers as it often means more red tape and more regulatory hoops for energy developers to jump through.

These duplicative regulatory requirements increase the time it takes to get projects online, along with price tags for these projects to get moving. Ultimately, that means higher energy costs for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, the bill before us today will help fix this project for geothermal projects by cutting down on the number of duplicative regulatory reviews a project developer needs to go through.

This bill would prevent the BLM from having to permit geothermal wells on State and private lands where the Federal Government holds an ownership interest of less than 50 percent of the geothermal estate. These projects, which have already gone through a rigorous State permitting process, would not be bogged down by the duplicative and burdensome Federal process.

Contrary to what some may argue, this bill doesn't waive the permitting process; it simply reduces the redundancy.

It is a commonsense fix. It will bring much-needed geothermal energy production online, providing much-needed energy to the American people at a much lower cost.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source