{"id":19930,"date":"2026-06-07T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=19930"},"modified":"2026-06-07T15:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T21:37:11","slug":"house-passes-fulchers-bill-to-bolster-geothermal-energy-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/house-passes-fulchers-bill-to-bolster-geothermal-energy-production\/","title":{"rendered":"House Passes Fulcher\u2019s Bill to Bolster Geothermal Energy Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\u00a0<\/strong>June\u00a02, 2026<br><strong>CONTACT:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"mailto:Christianne.Allen@mail.house.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christianne.Allen@mail.house.gov<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WASHINGTON, D.C.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 Today, U.S. Congressman Russ Fulcher\u2019s bill, the Committing Leases for Energy Access Now (CLEAN) Act, H.R. 1687,&nbsp;passed the House of Representatives by&nbsp;<strong>unanimous consent<\/strong>.&nbsp;The legislation now heads to the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Congressman Fulcher released the following statement after the vote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGeothermal is a clean, abundant, and dependable energy resource that can help meet America\u2019s rapidly rising power demands,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>said Congressman Fulcher.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cHowever, the lack of consistent geothermal lease sales and the slow federal permitting process result in timelines longer than many other energy projects. The&nbsp;bipartisan&nbsp;CLEAN Act will address these barriers and unlock opportunities to explore and develop this renewable energy source. I\u2019m grateful to see my bill pass the House and urge the Senate\u2019s swift consideration of this commonsense measure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Department of Energy, the United States leads the world in geothermal electricity-generating capacity\u2014just over four gigawatts. That\u2019s enough to power the equivalent of about three million U.S. homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Idaho plays a leading role in geothermal energy production. The City of Boise is home to the nation\u2019s first geothermal district heating system, established in 1892. The system supplies naturally heated water through over 20 miles of pipeline, heating more than six million square feet of building space, including the Idaho State Capitol\u2014the only geothermally heated capitol building in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To begin developing geothermal on federally controlled lands\u2014where approximately 90 percent of viable geothermal resources are located\u2014projects must first obtain a lease, making consistent lease sales crucial to the expansion of this energy source.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CLEAN Act amends the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Require yearly lease sales for geothermal energy;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Require the Secretary to hold replacement lease sales for any sales that are missed in a given calendar year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\u00a0June\u00a02, 2026CONTACT:\u00a0Christianne.Allen@mail.house.gov WASHINGTON, D.C.&nbsp;\u2014 Today, U.S. Congressman Russ Fulcher\u2019s bill, the Committing Leases for Energy Access Now (CLEAN) Act, H.R. 1687,&nbsp;passed the House of Representatives by&nbsp;unanimous consent.&nbsp;The legislation now heads to the Senate. Congressman Fulcher released the following statement after the vote.&nbsp; \u201cGeothermal is a clean, abundant, and dependable energy resource that can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":19931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[285,630,1584],"class_list":["post-19930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions-op-eds","tag-congress","tag-energy","tag-geothermal","cat-243-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19932,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19930\/revisions\/19932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}