Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. In closing, I would like to urge my colleagues to vote in support of H.R. 7409. The HEATS Act would expedite geothermal energy production by removing the requirement that geothermal operators receive a Federal drilling permit for wells on State and private lands where the subsurface geothermal estate is less than 50 percent Federal. Operators would still be required to receive State permits and approval but would be exempt from Federal permitting regulations like NEPA, the ESA, and section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. That is a mouthful of words, but let's look at in practicality. We are talking about a geothermal production facility that is going to have a footprint on the surface of the land. It is going to be on the surface of State or private land. Then we are going drill a hole thousands of feet into the ground, an 8- to 12-inch in diameter hole that is going to go a mile or so deeper, maybe 2 miles deep into the ground. Then it is going to turn horizontal, and it is going to start picking up geothermal energy from a large area. What my friends across the aisle seem to want to do is to invoke a NEPA permit on a hole in the ground 2 miles deep. They want to be able to implement the ESA because of a hole in the ground 2 miles deep. They want to do a National Historic Preservation assessment because of a hole in the ground 2 miles deep.…”