Why It Matters
The House passed legislation Monday, July 20, to accelerate commercialization of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), a technology that could unlock clean power from deep beneath the earth's surface. The Next-Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act, H.R. 8790, was introduced by Reps. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) and Andrea Salinas (D-OR). It cleared the chamber by voice vote under suspension of the rules, a track requiring two-thirds of members present and voting and producing no recorded tally.
The Senate received the bill Tuesday, July 21, and referred it to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The push arrives against a thin commercial record: only one EGS plant operates in the U.S. today.
The Big Picture
The bill creates a next-generation geothermal research program at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and funds grants covering up to 80 percent of costs for projects nearest to commercial deployment. It authorizes $150 million for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031, but the text specifies those amounts come from funds already authorized for the department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The authorization redirects existing money rather than adding to it.
Harrigan told colleagues during floor debate that a single supercritical well could produce more than seven times the energy of a conventional geothermal well. The department projects geothermal could reach 90 gigawatts of capacity by 2050, potentially supplying 12 percent of U.S. electricity.
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved a second measure the same day. The Geo POWER Act, H.R. 8437, from Reps. Nick Begich (R-AK) and Susie Lee (D-NV), would require the department to back at least three demonstration projects using innovative financing, prioritizing regions with little existing geothermal capacity.
Commercial and executive branch momentum have run ahead of Congress. Utilities signed 27 new geothermal power purchase agreements between 2021 and June 2025, twelve of them for next-generation technologies. The DOE announced a $171.5 million funding opportunity for field tests and exploration drilling on February 25, framing it as delivering on Executive Order 14154, "Unleashing American Energy." They also selected a $14 million Pennsylvania demonstration on April 14, the first EGS site in the eastern U.S. After the Bureau of Land Management generated $24 million from 451,893 acres across five states in 2025, a single New Mexico sale on June 16 brought in $16.6 million from 152,381 acres, roughly 70 percent of the prior year's entire national haul.
Fervo Energy's Project Red in Nevada reached commercial operations in late 2023 and remains the world's longest-running EGS system at 3.5 megawatts. The company's 500-megawatt Cape Station project in Beaver County, Utah, broke ground that September and targets roughly 100 megawatts by early 2027.
The gap between leasing and generating is the structural problem lawmakers keep circling. As of 2022, 454 of 538 federal geothermal leases were not producing, covering 91 percent of leased acreage. Congressional Research Service attributes part of that to review timelines: the department has estimated the environmental review process alone runs five to seven years for geothermal projects, against roughly 18 months for wind and solar.
The Bottom Line
The consensus behind H.R. 8790 is real but shallow. A bill that passes without a recorded vote, on a track reserved for the uncontroversial, is one nobody wanted to fight over rather than one everybody fought for. Lawmakers are steering authority toward an industry whose entire operating EGS footprint is a single 3.5 megawatt pilot, while lease receipts price in a buildout that 91 percent of leased acreage has yet to deliver. Cape Station's first electrons, expected later this year, will test whether the commercial case catches up to the political one.
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