Geothermal Royalty Reform Act

Key Points

• This bill updates the rules for how companies pay the federal government to use geothermal energy—heat from underground—on public lands. It changes the way 'royalties,' or usage fees, are calculated.
• Instead of looking at the total resources taken from a large area of land, the government would now charge fees based on the specific amount of electricity made by each individual power plant.
• This change aims to modernize a 1970 law. By focusing on the output of each facility, it creates a more precise way to track and bill for the energy being produced and sold to the public.
• The policy mainly affects energy companies that build geothermal plants on federal land. It ensures that the fees they pay accurately reflect the actual power they generate at each site.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.