Geothermal Cost-Recovery Authority Act of 2025

Key Points

• This bill allows the Department of the Interior to charge geothermal energy companies for the administrative work required to process their leases and permits. Instead of taxpayers covering all the costs of reviewing these applications, the companies applying for them would pay for the government's time and resources.
• The money collected from these fees would be used specifically to fund the government's geothermal program. This is intended to help the government process applications faster and perform more frequent inspections of drilling sites and energy facilities to ensure they are safe and following environmental rules.
• Government officials would have the flexibility to lower or skip these fees if they would cause a company too much financial hardship. They can also reduce the costs if it helps encourage more geothermal energy production, which provides clean electricity by using heat from underground.
• This new fee system would stay in place until September 2032. After five years, the Department of the Interior must give a report to Congress explaining how the program has affected the geothermal industry and whether the rules should be updated or extended.

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