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H. R. 5638 To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to require royalties on production from leased geothermal resources to be based on production from each electric generating facility, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to change how royalties are calculated for geothermal electric generating facilities. Instead of calculating royalties based on total production under a lease during its first 10 years, royalties are now calculated separately for each geothermal electric generating facility, with the 10-year royalty period beginning from when each individual facility starts operating. Multiple facilities on the same lease that share a turbine are treated as a single facility for royalty calculation purposes.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Kennedy, Mike [R-UT-3] (R-UT)
1 cosponsor
Actions (9)
- May 20, 2026 Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 575. · house
- May 20, 2026 Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 119-661. · house
- Mar 5, 2026 Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by Unanimous Consent. · house
- Mar 5, 2026 Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held · house
- Mar 5, 2026 Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Discharged · house
- Dec 16, 2025 Subcommittee Hearings Held · house
- Dec 9, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. · house
- Sep 30, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. · house
- Sep 30, 2025 Introduced in House
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Text versions (2)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 30, 2025
Mr. Kennedy of Utah introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
May 20, 2026
Additional sponsor: Mr. Begich
May 20, 2026
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on September 30, 2025]
A BILL
To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to require royalties on production from leased geothermal resources to be based on production from each electric generating facility, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Geothermal Royalty Reform Act”.
SEC. 2. GEOTHERMAL ROYALTIES.
(a) Definitions.—Section 2 of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1001) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(h) ‘Geothermal electric generating facility’ means a facility, including all necessary equipment or structures (including turbines and cooling equipment), that produces electricity using geothermal resources. For purposes of section 5(a)(1), a facility described in the preceding sentence shall be considered a separate facility from any other such facility unless the facility shares a turbine with any other such facility.
“(i) ‘In-service date’ means, with respect to a geothermal electric generating facility, the date on which the geothermal electric generating facility begins operating.”.
(b) Geothermal Royalties.—Section 5(a)(1) of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1004(a)(1)) is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (A)—
(A) by inserting “with respect to a geothermal electric generating facility producing electricity from such resources,” before “not less than”;
(B) by inserting “by the geothermal electric generating facility” after “produced”; and
(C) by striking “the first 10 years of production under the lease” and inserting “each year of the 10- year period following the in-service date of the geothermal electric generating facility”; and
(2) in subparagraph (B)—
(A) by inserting “with respect to a geothermal electric generating facility producing electricity from such resources,” before “not less than”;
(B) by inserting “by the geothermal electric generating facility” after “produced”; and
(C) by striking “such 10-year period” and inserting “the period of 10 years described in subparagraph (A)”. Union Calendar No. 575
119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5638
[Report No. 119-661]
A BILL
To amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to require royalties on production from leased geothermal resources to be based on production from each electric generating facility, and for other purposes.
May 20, 2026
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
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