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Friday, January 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Official to seek more funds for geothermal programs

WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary Gale Norton plans to announce today that the Bush administration will request an additional $850,000 in next year's budget for geothermal energy research and production programs on public lands.

An Interior Department official said Norton will add $350,000 to the Bureau of Land Management's 2003 budget proposal to add staff to process geothermal permit applications in Nevada, California, Utah, Oregon and New Mexico.

Another $500,000 will be earmarked for the U.S. Geological Survey to update government data on the location of geothermal hot spots. Some of the money will be used in Nevada to conduct geological tests near Dixie Valley and Steamboat Springs.

The money more than doubles what the department plans to spend this year on geothermal activities. The Interior Department's budget for geothermal energy activities in 2002 contained $300,000 for leasing activities.

Norton will make the announcement while on a tour of a private wind farm outside of Palm Springs, Calif. She will discuss the need to beef up the use of public lands for renewable energy production, the official said.

The decision to increase the 2003 geothermal budget came, in part, from suggestions made at a renewable energy summit Norton convened in late November in Washington.

"It's a high priority of the administration and the Interior Department to invest new resources into geothermal production," the official said.

About a year ago, BLM's Nevada office became inundated with new applications to lease BLM land for geothermal drilling.

The state has major sources of underground steam reserves that have yet to be tapped, but industry officials have complained the bureaucracy involved in getting permits has cost time and money that most companies can't afford.

"This is a beginning," said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association, a trade group that represents geothermal energy producers in the West. He said the budget figures suggest a renewed interest in alternative energy on the part of the Bush administration.

"I think we're seeing some follow-through," Gawell said, adding that since Norton's energy summit, key Interior staff have begun to address backlog problems and the "nuts and bolts" of getting new geothermal power plants in the West up and running.

Nevada has nine geothermal power plants operating in the state that provide about 200 megawatts of electricity to 200,000 homes in Nevada and California.