Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Geothermal Energy

Letter

Dear Mr. President:

We are disappointed that geothermal royalty payments to counties were eliminated in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget request. We understand and support the need to propose a fiscally prudent budget, but repealing geothermal royalty payments to counties is a short sighted method that does little to address fiscal challenges.

In the bipartisan Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress decided that, because of the high burdens geothermal production places on the counties where geothermal development is located, these counties should share in the revenue of the federal receipts. In turn, counties have used these revenues to pay for critical governmental services, such as road maintenance, public safety and law enforcement, and conservation easements. This revenue sharing also has made counties vested partners, and ultimately champions, in the continued development of geothermal energy--a clean, renewable, and domestic energy source that provides well-paying jobs in rural areas.

Ending the geothermal revenue sharing plan will have a significant negative impact on our districts, while the overall effect on our nation's fiscal well-being would be miniscule--$4 million in 2015 and $48 million over 10 years. Many of the counties that receive revenue from geothermal receipts are small, rural communities facing precarious budget situations. The loss of such revenue for these counties could result in the elimination or reduction of essential services. We strongly support geothermal revenue sharing with counties and we encourage you to consider it in future budget proposals.

We appreciate your attention to this issue and look forward to working with you to promote geothermal energy production and provide support for the surrounding communities.

Sincerely,

Mike Thompson

John Garamendi

Chris Stewart

Jared Huffman

Steve Pearce

Doug LaMalfa

Juan Vargas

Crescent Hardy

Paul Cook

Mark Amodei