The Bureau of Land Management is planning two large geothermal lease sales in the next two months that will advance the Trump administration’s public lands agenda backing this particular renewable energy source.
The two planned lease sales — the first in August in California and the second in Idaho in September — will cover nearly 50,000 acres of public lands and cumulatively could result in power plant development capable of powering about 70,000 homes.
The lease sale bid proceeds, as well as any revenue from electricity that is eventually produced if projects are built, would apply a new revenue-sharing plan that increases payments to counties and states where renewable energy is produced. It was part of the massive tax and energy bill Congress approved, and President Donald Trump signed into law this month, that also set the stage to end wind and solar project tax credits in the next two years.
The Trump administration has made it clear that geothermal power — which generally involves pumping up naturally heated water from deep underground to produce steam that runs electric generators — is its preferred renewable energy sector on public lands.
