HEATS Act To Streamline Geothermal Permitting Passes House

Why It Matters

The House passed the Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources (HEATS) Act on Thursday, April 23, 2026, with the floor vote at 231-186, exposing a sharp partisan fault line over how far Congress should go to strip federal oversight from domestic energy development.

The act amends the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to waive federal drilling permit requirements for certain geothermal activities on non-federal lands, and exempts specific activities from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

This means that if a geothermal project sits on state or private land, but taps subsurface resources that cross federal mineral boundaries, developers would no longer need to run the full federal gauntlet. Supporters say the current system forces geothermal operators through redundant NEPA reviews, up to as many as six rounds, according to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR). Critics say the bill guts environmental protections and shuts tribes out of the process entirely.

The Big Picture

The bill did not sail through. It moved steadily but with friction, clearing the House Natural Resources Committee on March 5 after Democrats failed to attach a tribal consultation amendment, then clearing the Rules Committee earlier Thursday before the full floor vote.

The legislation was introduced by Rep. Young Kim (R-CA-40) with Democratic co-sponsor Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA-13), giving it a bipartisan origin story. But co-sponsorship did not translate into broad Democratic support on the floor. The final tally showed 208 Republicans voting yes, zero voting no, while 186 Democrats opposed the bill and only 22 crossed the aisle to support it.

The bill fits into a broader wave of geothermal legislation moving through the 119th Congress. Related measures include the STEAM Act (H.R. 1077), which extends expedited NEPA review to geothermal projects, the GEO Act (H.R. 301), which sets 60-day federal deadlines for drilling and leasing approvals, and the Enhancing Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act (H.R. 5576), which exempts small-scale exploration projects on federal lands from major NEPA review. Congress is moving on multiple fronts to accelerate geothermal development, and the HEATS Act is the furthest along.

Yes, but: Democrats argued the bill goes well beyond streamlining. Ranking Member Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) noted that the original bill at least paired its NEPA waiver with a requirement for Interior to conduct a programmatic review of geothermal development on federal lands. The majority stripped that provision in the amended version, removing what Huffman described as a meaningful safeguard.

Partisan Perspectives

Republicans framed the bill around cost and national security.

Rep. Kim, ahead of the vote, stated: "Time to unleash American energy & lower costs for CA families."

Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) said the bill "will increase our energy security, reliability, and most importantly, affordability."

Rep. Westerman argued the bill is narrowly targeted: "We're talking about development on the surface that's totally off of federal land... we're simply saying that if the geothermal reserve goes under federal subsurface land, that it exempts the project being developed on state or private land."

Democrats drew a harder line on environmental and tribal protections.

Huffman charged the bill "exempts projects entirely from NEPA, as well as waiving Endangered Species Act requirements and undermining National Historic Preservation Act protections."

Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA) pushed a tribal consultation amendment at markup, stating: "This amendment doesn't create new obligations. It simply reinforces longstanding federal trust responsibilities." Republicans rejected the amendment, with Westerman arguing it would "maintain duplicative consultation requirements" for projects on non-federal lands.

Huffman added: "Tribes are not thrown under the bus and left out of the process entirely with no opportunity for consultation on projects that could be vast." That amendment failed.

The bill's core provisions, including cutting federal permitting requirements and NEPA exemptions, align with the Trump administration's stated energy dominance agenda, and zero Republican members voted against the bill.

Notable Defections on the HEATS Act Floor Vote

Twenty-two Democrats broke with their caucus to support the bill, many from competitive districts. Among them: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-5), Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME-2), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD-5), and co-sponsor Rep. Gray. Rep. Kevin Kiley, listed as an independent representing California's 3rd district, also voted yes.

Political Stakes

For House Republicans, the vote is a clean win. Not a single Republican defected, and the bill advances a core piece of their energy agenda without any internal dissent. For Speaker Mike Johnson, it demonstrates the conference can move legislation with discipline even on issues that attract some bipartisan crossover.

For Democrats, the 22 defections reflect the ongoing tension between the party's progressive base and members representing swing districts where energy costs and energy jobs are ongoing political issues. Rep. Gray, the Democratic co-sponsor, framed the bill as a direct response to California's energy price crisis, arguing it would "lower energy costs for Valley families." That message resonated with enough members to crack the caucus.

For the American public, the bill's practical impact depends heavily on how broadly federal agencies interpret the NEPA waiver, and what state-level permitting regimes look like in states with significant geothermal potential, particularly in the West.

Worth Noting

The geothermal industry has invested heavily in lobbying as this legislation advanced. Fervo Energy, whose CEO Tim Latimer testified at the December 2025 legislative hearing on the HEATS Act, reported $690,000 in lobbying expenditures in the First Quarter of 2026 alone, with total reported spending exceeding $2.3 million across the 119th Congress. Ormat Technologies, whose representative also testified at that hearing, has reported consistent quarterly lobbying expenditures totaling more than $1 million. Quaise Energy and the Enhanced Geothermal Systems Deployment Coalition have also filed substantial lobbying disclosures tied to geothermal legislation in the current Congress. No PAC contributions from these organizations to members who voted on the bill were identified in FEC records.

The Bottom Line

The HEATS Act now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. The bill's NEPA waiver provisions are likely to draw scrutiny from Democrats who could slow or block it in a chamber where 60 votes are often needed to advance legislation. The tribal consultation issue, which surfaced sharply at markup, is not resolved and could resurface as a sticking point.

The vote also signals something broader. Congress has identified geothermal energy as a rare area of potential bipartisan agreement on energy policy, even if the specific terms of that agreement remain contested. The sheer volume of geothermal legislation moving through the 119th Congress, across permitting, royalties, tax treatment, and federal leasing, suggests this is not a one-off. The question is whether the Senate will move at the same pace, or whether bills like the HEATS Act will stall waiting for floor time.

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