Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise to comment on H.R. 6474, Representative Steel's bill, which aims to expedite geothermal exploration and development in previously studied or developed areas. I thank my colleague for her attention to this important issue. I strongly support deploying geothermal energy on Federal lands. We have heard from geothermal developers that there can be challenges when it comes to permitting new geothermal plants. That is exactly why several of the bills we are discussing here today are designed to address those very challenges. Now, what H.R. 6474 would do is legislate the creation of a new categorical exclusion for certain geothermal-related activities. Categorical exclusions are used when there is a class of actions that Federal agencies have determined do not individually or cumulatively have a significant impact on the human environment, and therefore, do not require either an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Currently, the oil and gas industries have a relatively narrow categorical exclusion for minor disturbances in already developed oil fields; that is, oil fields that have recently been analyzed under NEPA. This bill attempts to put geothermal on a level playing field by taking that existing categorical exclusion and applying it basically as is to geothermal.…”