H.R. 5631 — Geothermal Energy Advancement Act

This section requires the Secretary to approve or deny applications for geothermal drilling permits, sundry notices, notices to proceed, rights-of-way, and other authorizations under valid existing geothermal leases within 60 days after completing all required reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and related statutes, even if a civil action affecting the application is pending, unless a federal court vacates or enjoins the lease or authorization.

This section authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to require applicants for or holders of geothermal leases to reimburse the United States for all reasonable administrative costs of processing lease applications, operations plans, drilling permits, utilization plans, and related approvals, as well as inspecting and monitoring geophysical exploration, well drilling and abandonment, and facility construction, operation, and reclamation, from the date of enactment through September 30, 2033. The Secretary may reduce reimbursement amounts to address economic hardship or promote greater use of geothermal resources and must credit recovered amounts as discretionary offsetting collections available only through appropriations acts for those processing and inspection activities.

This section requires the Secretary of the Interior, after consulting the geothermal industry and other stakeholders, to submit a report within 5 years of enactment to the House Natural Resources Committee and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and to post it on the Department of the Interior website. The report must assess the effects of section 3 amendments on the Bureau of Land Management geothermal program and include recommendations on reauthorizing section 6(j) of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 and any other updates to that program.

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to identify standard procedures and guidelines for efficient and environmentally responsible geothermal leasing and permitting within one year after enactment, if not already addressed in the 2007 Gold Book. It requires publication of an updated and renamed Gold Book within 270 days after identification, following consultation with Federal agencies and stakeholders, with mandatory coverage of exploration, permitting, construction, drilling, and related operations, and reviews at least every five years.

This section establishes a Geothermal Ombudsman and a Geothermal Permitting Task Force within the Bureau of Land Management, both created within 60 days of enactment. The Ombudsman acts as a liaison among BLM offices, provides dispute resolution for geothermal authorization applicants, monitors permit processing timelines, develops best practices, and coordinates with the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council; the Task Force supports these duties and may reassign personnel across offices, with retention allowances up to 25 percent of basic pay. The Ombudsman submits an annual report to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources.

This section defines a "geothermal electric generating facility" as a facility that produces electricity from geothermal resources, treating facilities as separate unless they share a turbine, and defines its "in-service date" as the date it begins operating. It also modifies the 10-year period of reduced royalty rates on geothermal resources used to produce electricity to run for 10 years after the facility's in-service date (from the first 10 years of production under the lease) and applies the rates to electricity produced by that facility.

This section extends the rebuttable presumption that a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act applies to oil or gas activities on public lands or National Forest System lands to also cover exploration or development of geothermal resources under the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970. It further applies the presumption to drilling geothermal wells at sites drilled within the prior five years or within developed fields analyzed in plans or documents approved within the prior five years.