Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act of 2026

Floor Speech

My constituents and Americans across the country are struggling under the rising costs of gas, groceries, and electricity from President Trump's tariffs and endless wars. We should be spending our time finding ways to lower costs for families. Instead, we are moving on legislation that is just another chapter in the Republican playbook to gut commonsense safeguards for energy development.

I am a strong supporter of geothermal energy. Geothermal is a clean, reliable, affordable, and abundant form of electricity. Unfortunately, I have to oppose H.R. 5587, the HEATS Act, on the floor today.

This is a complex issue. The bill waives the requirement for a Federal drilling permit if a project starts on private or State lands and then drills underground into Federal lands, provided the total project is made up of less than 50 percent Federal subsurface land.

The bill says these projects don't need to do any analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. They don't need to comply with the Endangered Species Act. They don't need to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act so long as the State has any law that vaguely ``addresses the preservation of historic properties.''

The majority says that this is about reducing duplicative reviews, but I see it as an irresponsible waiver of the Federal Government's obligation to steward our Federal resources.

In practice, this means that in areas where the Federal Government owns the underground mineral rights but a rancher owns the surface rights to graze their cattle, or a farmer to grow their crops, underground development could take place without that landowner even knowing and without sufficient protections in place.

The permit to drill process is the process surface landowners use to work with developers to make sure their lands and resources, like groundwater they depend on for their wells or springs, are protected when developers are drilling into Federal minerals.

We are not talking about developers just tapping into a few feet of underground Federal lands. Geothermal wells can extend horizontally for kilometers.

While geothermal energy is exponentially safer than oil and gas development, that doesn't mean that developers should just skip their environmental reviews altogether.

Landowners and communities have the right to provide input into how public lands are developed, whether that development is on the surface of the land or below it.

Again, I am a strong supporter of geothermal energy. It provides 24/7 carbon-free energy and creates good jobs in the clean energy economy.

For decades, geothermal energy was confined to naturally occurring hot water reservoirs, but recent technological breakthroughs have created next-generation geothermal systems that can be deployed in a wide range of conditions at competitive prices.

At this rate of innovation, low-cost, next-generation geothermal could soon be possible all across the country, not in decades but in the next few years.

This could be truly transformational for our energy system. Paired with wind and solar, geothermal can help us break free from fossil fuels and build a reliable, homegrown energy system that we need to fight climate change and tackle the affordability crisis.

I have a bill, the Geothermal Gold Book Development Act, that is part of the package of six bills, three from Democrats and three from Republicans, that the Natural Resources Committee passed out of committee by unanimous consent.

These bills, including my own, would all help make permitting easier for geothermal through commonsense ways like increased coordination at BLM field offices, cost-recovery authority, and some categorical exclusions that already exist for oil and gas development on previously disturbed lands.

Those are the kinds of things that we should focus on that will actually help move the needle on projects.

I have heard arguments that we should provide these waivers so that the Bureau of Land Management's limited staff can focus on bigger problems. I agree that staff in BLM field offices are overworked and understaffed.

However, let's be honest about the situation. The Bureau of Land Management doesn't have enough staff because the President continues to try to zero out the budget for renewable energy, and former Presidential aide Elon Musk kicked off across-the-board staff cuts.

You cannot break the system, then blame the broken system as your excuse to waive the law. When we waive those Federal review obligations, we end up relying on a patchwork of State laws.

Under State laws, what happens to the government-to-government consultation responsibilities required by the National Historic Preservation Act or federally protected endangered species? What if a State doesn't provide opportunities for public input or even public notice?

Again, I strongly support geothermal energy development on our Federal lands. It is a very promising and growing source of energy. But instead of spending floor time on geothermal legislation that everyone supports and could help stop skyrocketing electricity bills, we are debating a bill to solve a problem that may not even be a burden on the industry.

I am happy to continue to work across the aisle to advance geothermal legislation, but, unfortunately, I must oppose this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, even good energy sources need good permitting policy. I am a strong supporter of geothermal energy, but the HEATS Act could undermine the on-the-ground support and good environmental track record geothermal currently enjoys.

The HEATS Act empowers one set of landowners at the expense of their neighbors. This bill allows developers to skip Federal permitting when drilling from their property into federally owned subsurface minerals which often sit under a neighbor's private property.

The Federal permit process gives surface landowners who happen to live above Federal minerals a say in what happens beneath their homes. What happens underground doesn't always stay underground. Drilling can cause earthquakes and sinkholes or accidentally contaminate drinking or irrigation water.

State laws do not always require the same protections for surface landowners, especially if they are not the ones doing the drilling. Without a Federal drilling permit, the Federal Government can't require financial assurances from developers to cover the costs of cleanup if surface damages do happen. That means landowners or Federal taxpayers will be on the hook to pay for the cleanup.

This bill would eliminate real, meaningful protections for landowners, not just red tape.

I am disappointed that this is the bill that the majority has chosen to bring to the House floor rather than the bipartisan package of real, commonsense permitting solutions for geothermal that the Natural Resources Committee unanimously supported.

That package includes my own Geothermal Gold Book Development Act to standardized best permitting practices across the Bureau of Land Management to responsibly speed up geothermal development. I hope to keep working across the aisle to advance geothermal energy, but this particular bill is a step in the wrong direction.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. ANSARI. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 231, nays 186, not voting 12, as follows: [Roll No. 137] YEAS--231 Aderholt Alford Allen Amodei (NV) Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Barr Barrett Baumgartner Bean (FL) Begich Bentz Bergman Bice Biggs (AZ) Biggs (SC) Bilirakis Boebert Bost Brecheen Bresnahan Buchanan Budzinski Burchett Burlison Calvert Cammack Carey Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Ciscomani Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Collins Comer Correa Costa Crane Crank Crawford Cuellar Davidson Davis (NC) DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Downing Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Evans (CO) Ezell Fallon Fedorchak Feenstra Fine Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Fong Foxx Franklin, Scott Fry Fulcher Fuller Garbarino Gill (TX) Gillen Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (TX) Gonzalez, V. Gooden Goodlander Gosar Gottheimer Graves Gray Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Hamadeh (AZ) Harder (CA) Haridopolos Harrigan Harris (MD) Harris (NC) Harshbarger Hern (OK) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Himes Hinson Houchin Hoyer Hudson Huizenga Hunt Hurd (CO) Issa Jack Jackson (TX) James Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy (UT) Kiggans (VA) Kiley (CA) Kim Knott Kustoff LaHood LaLota Langworthy Latta Lawler Lee (FL) Letlow Loudermilk Lucas Luttrell Mackenzie Malliotakis Maloy Mann Massie Mast McCaul McClain McClintock McCormick McDonald Rivet McDowell McGuire Messmer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Moolenaar Moore (AL) Moore (NC) Moore (UT) Moore (WV) Moran Moulton Murphy Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunn (IA) Obernolte Ogles Onder Owens Palmer Panetta Pappas Patronis Perez Perry Pfluger Reschenthaler Riley (NY) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rouzer Roy Rulli Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schmidt Schweikert Scott, Austin Self Sessions Shreve Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steil Steube Strong Stutzman Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner (OH) Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Van Epps Van Orden Vasquez Vindman Wagner Walberg Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Wied Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--186 Adams Aguilar Amo Ansari Auchincloss Balint Barragan Beatty Bell Bera Beyer Bishop Bonamici Boyle (PA) Brown Bynum Carbajal Carson Carter (LA) Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Conaway Courtney Craig Crockett Crow Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Dexter Dingell Doggett Elfreth Escobar Espaillat Evans (PA) Fields Figures Fletcher Foster Foushee Frankel, Lois Friedman Frost Garamendi Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Gomez Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Hayes Horsford Houlahan Hoyle (OR) Huffman Ivey Jackson (IL) Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy (NY) Khanna Krishnamoorthi Landsman Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latimer Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Levin Liccardo Lieu Lofgren Lynch Magaziner Mannion Matsui McBath McBride McClain Delaney McClellan McCollum McGarvey McGovern McIver Meeks Mejia Menefee Menendez Meng Mfume Min Moore (WI) Morelle Morrison Moskowitz Mrvan Mullin Nadler Neal Neguse Norcross Ocasio-Cortez Olszewski Omar Pallone Pelosi Peters Pettersen Pingree Pocan Pou Pressley Quigley Ramirez Randall Raskin Rivas Ross Ruiz Ryan Salinas Sanchez Scanlon Schakowsky Schneider Scholten Schrier Scott (VA) Sewell Sherman Simon Smith (WA) Sorensen Soto Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Subramanyam Suozzi Sykes Takano Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Tran Underwood Vargas Veasey Velazquez Walkinshaw Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Whitesides Williams (GA) NOT VOTING--12 Brownley Crenshaw De La Cruz Dunn (FL) Garcia (TX) Goldman (NY) Kean Luna Mace Stefanik Williams (TX) Wilson (FL)

Mr. LEVIN changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

Mr. GOTTHEIMER changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''

So the bill was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Stated for:

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