This bill makes it faster and easier to get approval for geothermal energy projects by cutting through some of the environmental review requirements that normally apply. Here's what that means in practical terms: when companies want to drill for geothermal energy (heat from the earth used to generate power), they usually have to go through lengthy environmental reviews to make sure the project won't harm the environment. This bill creates a shortcut for certain geothermal drilling projects, allowing them to skip the full environmental review process in specific situations.

The shortcut applies in two main scenarios. First, if drilling is happening in an area where drilling has already occurred within the past five years, the company can skip the detailed environmental review. Second, if a geothermal field already has an approved plan that identified drilling as something that would likely happen there, and that plan was approved within the past five years, the company can also use the shortcut. Essentially, the bill assumes that if drilling has already happened nearby recently, or if it was already planned for in an approved document, then another drilling project in that same area doesn't need the same level of environmental scrutiny.

The goal is to speed up geothermal energy development, which is a renewable energy source. However, this means less formal environmental review for these projects, which some may see as a tradeoff between faster clean energy development and thorough environmental protection.

STEAM Act

Lee, Susie

Streamlining Thermal Energy through Advanced Mechanisms Act or the STEAM ActThis bill expedites the environmental review of certain geothermal energy activities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Specifically, the bill expands&nbsp;the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to include certain geothermal exploration or development activities in an existing categorical exclusion from NEPA for certain oil or gas activities.&nbsp;A&nbsp;categorical exclusion applies to a class of actions that do not require an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement under NEPA.The categorical exclusion established by the bill applies to&nbsp;drilling a geothermal well (1) in an area where drilling has occurred previously within the five years prior to the date when drilling begins; or (2) within a developed field for which an approved land use plan or environmental document prepared under NEPA determined drilling to be a reasonably foreseeable activity, so long as the plan or document was approved within the five years prior to the date when drilling begins.