The Bureau of Land Management is adopting a permit streamlining policy already in place with the Forest Service and Department of the Navy that will help the bureau approve geothermal exploration projects faster.
The policy announced late Monday will allow the bureau to use “categorical exclusions” to approve exploration for geothermal projects without first conducting a separate environmental assessment.
The categorical exclusions will take effect once they are published, presumably this week, in the Federal Register, according to BLM.
Both the Forest Service and the Navy already have in place similar categorical exclusions that waive environmental analysis requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act for projects that have been determined to pose little risk to the human environment.
