This bill speeds up the process for companies to explore and develop geothermal energy in areas that have already been studied or developed before. Geothermal energy comes from heat beneath the Earth's surface and is a renewable energy source. Right now, geothermal projects have to go through lengthy environmental review processes, even in places where geothermal work has already happened. This bill streamlines those reviews for geothermal projects in previously explored areas, similar to how oil and gas projects are already handled. The goal is to make it faster and easier to tap into geothermal resources without sacrificing environmental protections—it just removes unnecessary delays for projects in areas where the environmental impacts are already well understood. This could help the U.S. develop more clean, renewable geothermal energy more quickly.

STEAM Act

Cortez Masto, Catherine

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.