The nation's geothermal potential stalls in federal bureaucracy
As the nation seeks to unleash energy production, geothermal has been a high-profile source of attention for multiple presidential administrations because it is clean and renewable, but the average American doesn't seem to know about it.
Geothermal energy is a renewable resource that comes from heated rocks and liquids stored deep in the Earth. When that energy is released naturally to the earth's surface, hot springs, geysers and volcanoes form — typically near tectonic plates.
Geothermal power plants generate electricity by drilling deep into the earth to access the hot solid or liquid below. If happens when solid, cold water is poured down to create steam, which rotates a turbine that then powers a generator, producing electricity.
'In the coming years, the United States will face unprecedented growth and energy demand as we race to win the AI war against China and bring gigawatts of new data center capacity online, and an all-of-the-above approach for energy development is the only option we have to move forward,' Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said Monday during a field hearing for the House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hosted by Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy and Southern Utah University.
Geothermal power, he said, will help meet those needs.
The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that human-made geothermal energy, or enhanced geothermal systems, could ultimately power over 65 million homes and businesses in the states, and will be 'the next frontier for renewable energy deployment.'
It is arguably the least polarizing renewable energy option across political party lines as it is viewed as one of the most practical solutions to the United States' energy demand, and Utah is considered a hotbed of geothermal opportunity.
Utah is third in the nation for its production of utility-scale electricity derived from geothermal energy, behind California at No. 1 and Nevada, which takes second place.
The only issue: The best places to build power plants are on federally owned land.
'Even when the geology is ideal, it can take years to get a green light to drill. In states like Utah, where so much promising geothermal potential lies beneath federally managed lands, the permitting backlog is especially problematic,' Maloy said Monday.
She and two of her Republican colleagues, Stauber and Rep. Nicholas Begich, R-Alaska, held the field hearing, 'Letting Off Steam: Unleashing Geothermal Energy Development on Federal Land,' discussing with energy developers and experts the barriers to developing geothermal energy on federally owned land.
Getting land permits for energy purposes from the Bureau of Land Management is not a new process. In fact, geothermal energy was the first type of renewable energy that the BLM approved for production on public lands in 1978.
The issue is timing.
'We need smart federal policy,' Tim Latimer, CEO of Fervo Energy and witness during Monday's hearing, said. 'Today, 90% of geothermal resources lie on federally managed land, but permitting can take up to a decade, much longer than equivalent wind, solar, oil and gas projects. That needs to change.'
Federal permits can take upward of 10 years to be granted, and that doesn't include litigation, Stauber warned. That's why bipartisan bills like Sen. Mike Lee's co-led Geothermal Energy Optimization (GEO) Act and Utah Sen. John Curtis' Geothermal Energy Opportunity (GEO) Act (same name different legislation) or Maloy's Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act have been pushed at the federal level to 'streamline the federal permitting process' and 'establish a permit-by-rule system.'
Efforts are continually being facilitated. An April auction from the Bureau of Land Management in Utah brought in $5.6 million for 14 parcels of land for leases and potential development.
Paul Thomsen, vice president Of business development at Ormat Technologies, Inc., and longtime geothermal energy advocate, emphasized that despite all the efforts made — not to discredit them — the interagency conflicts add to the issue of long-delayed permits.
For the last four years, he said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put the Department of Interior under threat of lawsuit for granting geothermal permits at the expense of certain fish species.
'We shouldn't have regulatory capture due to the threat of litigation,' he said, 'So we urge the committee to address the interagency conflicts that hinder geothermal energy exploration.'
Maloy inquired whether expedited geothermal energy permitting could still be carried out in an environmentally safe manner if it were approved.
Thomsen was 'very confident' it could be.
'One of the amazing things about geothermal is it has a footprint disturbance 22 times smaller than solar with integrated storage,' he added. 'We can move the geothermal power plants. We can move the wells and so forth to make them as benign as possible for the surrounding environment. Couple that with no emissions and base load power, the environmental footprint of these facilities is astonishing.'
Contributing: Amy Joi O'Donoghue
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
5 minutes ago
- The Hill
Doug Ford urges Canada's leader to ramp up tariffs on US
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is pressuring Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney to ramp up tariffs against the United States after President Trump doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this week. 'I highly recommended to the prime minister directly that we slap another 25 percent on top of our tariffs to equal President Trump's tariffs on our steel,' Ford said during his Wednesday appearance on CNN's 'Situation Room.' 'He has to, he has to start looking around the world at China and other locations that are taking Chinese steel and really stop the flow of steel. That's the problem,' Ford told host Wolf Blitzer. 'Canada is not the problem. Again. We purchased 30 billion, with a 'B,' of steel off the US, and that's going to come to an end real quick.' Trump signed the executive order to hike the tariffs on Tuesday. The measure went into effect on Wednesday and would levy steel and aluminum tariffs on almost all imports to the U.S.. The United Kingdom is exempt as it inked a trade deal with Washington last month. Canada has retaliated against the U.S. previously, slapping a 25 percent reciprocal tariff on U.S. aluminum and steel products. Carney, who met with Trump at the White House in early May, did not express readiness to implement Ford's suggestion. 'We will take some time, not much, some time because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on the trading relationship,' Carney said to reporters on Wednesday, according to Politico. 'Those discussions are progressing. I would note that the American action is a global action. It's not one targeted in Canada, so we will take some time, but not more,' the prime minister said. Ontario is open to imposing its own countermeasures, according to Ford. When asked on Wednesday if willing to bring back the electricity surcharge, he told reporters that 'everything's on the table.' Ontario implemented a 25 percent extra charge on the electricity Canada exports to three U.S. states after Trump threatened to double tariffs on steel and aluminum. Ford eventually spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and later suspended the tax impacting Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
Business Wire
5 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Angel or Adversary: Deep Instinct Research Highlights the Double-Edged Sword of AI in Cybersecurity
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Deep Instinct, the preemptive data security company built on the first and only AI-based deep learning framework for cybersecurity, today released the sixth edition of its Voice of SecOps Report, which delves into the growing influence of AI in business, with a focus on its impact on Security Operations (SecOps). While AI adoption is accelerating, the findings uncover a more complex reality: security teams are limited by knowledge gaps, inconsistent implementation, and mounting operational pressures as they face an increasingly treacherous, AI-driven threat landscape. The research, ' Cybersecurity & AI: Promises, Pitfalls – and Prevention Paradise,' found that nearly three-quarters (72%) of organizations have revised their cybersecurity strategies over the past year due to AI, and a whopping 86% have increased their use of AI within SecOps. Despite the investments, two-thirds of respondents were confused about fundamental AI definitions, with 38% unable to differentiate between machine learning and deep learning – signaling an alarming knowledge gap in the industry. Additional key findings from the report include the following: AI-Powered Cyber Threats Drive a Focus on Prevention As cybercriminals build and adopt AI tools, the nature and scale of attacks have drastically evolved and expanded. Nearly half (46%) of organizations experienced an uptick in targeted phishing attacks, while 43% reported deepfake impersonation attempts. Attacks on local or cloud storage were also a growing concern, cited as a top risk by 83% of respondents, second only to phishing (84%). In response to these AI-powered attacks, 82% of organizations say they have shifted toward a prevention-first security strategy, with 64% noting a direct push from the C-suite to adopt more proactive defense measures. Benefits of AI in Cybersecurity Roles Are Clear, Yet It Unexpectedly Contributes to Burnout SecOps teams appear to be reaping the benefits of AI, with 76% stating it makes their roles easier while saving security teams an average of 12 hours per week on manual processes. However, while GenAI may be simplifying some aspects of SecOps workloads, nearly 70% of security professionals believe AI also contributes to burnout. Regulatory complexity adds another layer of strain, with 32% citing difficulties in keeping up with increasing AI-related policies, and an additional 37% fearing AI-related regulations are a financial penalty waiting to happen. Preemptive Data Security: The New Imperative In the face of mounting threats, operational burnout, and AI confusion, preemptive data security – a subset of Gartner's recently introduced preemptive cybersecurity market category – offers a definitive path forward. By harnessing the power of deep learning to prevent threats before they execute, organizations will reduce risk, ease the burden on SecOps teams, and stay ahead of relentless adversaries. 'The traditional 'detect and respond' cybersecurity model is broken – it's reactive, expensive, and no match for AI-powered threats,' said Lane Bess, CEO of Deep Instinct. 'To win this fight, cybersecurity teams must shift from chasing threats to preventing them. Preemptive data security – powered by deep learning, the most advanced form of AI – is the only way for SecOps teams to regain control and stay ahead of adversaries.' To get the full report and download past Voice of SecOps reports, please visit s. Then register for our webinar, Cybersecurity & AI: Promises, Pitfalls – and Prevention Paradise (2025 Voice of SecOps Research), to learn about the top findings from this year's report. Survey Methodology Sapio Research surveyed 500 senior cybersecurity experts from companies with 1000+ employees in the U.S. The interviews were conducted online in April 2025 using an email invitation and an online survey. Respondents worked at organizations that operated in either financial services, technology, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, public sector, or critical infrastructure (such as telecoms, energy, utilities, and transportation). For this specific report, the C-suite is defined as those who hold chief, global, head of department, or director roles, while reports are those who hold a manager, administrator, analyst, team lead, or officer role. About Deep Instinct Deep Instinct, the first and only preemptive data security company built on a deep learning cybersecurity framework, prevents unknown threats in <20 milliseconds, 750X faster than the fastest ransomware can encrypt. Deep Instinct Data Security X (DSX) secures data at-rest or in-motion – across cloud, NAS, applications, and endpoints. DSX Brain, Deep Instinct's deep learning framework, prevents zero-day threats that no one else can find, with >99% accuracy and a <0.1% false positive rate. DIANNA, the DSX Companion, leverages GenAI to provide unparalleled explainability into unknown threats in <10 seconds. For more, visit
Fox News
10 minutes ago
- Fox News
NEWT GINGRICH: Pay less, know more — Trump is slashing red tape and lowering your healthcare costs
One of the boldest and most consistent themes in President Donald J. Trump's healthcare agenda is his determination to reduce the role and power of middlemen. From insurance companies to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) – and even hospitals –these intermediaries profit from the inefficiencies of our bloated health system. The result is higher costs for American families. As I explain in my new book, "Trump's Triumph: America's Greatest Comeback," the U.S. healthcare system isn't expensive just because care is costly. It's expensive because the system is complex – by design. The third-party payment structure, whether public or private, adds layers of bureaucracy. This opens the door for middlemen to offer supposed solutions that serve their own bottom lines – not patients. It's a vicious cycle: more rules lead to more middlemen, which lead to even more rules, red tape, and rising costs. President Trump understood this – and he took action. In his first term, he issued a groundbreaking executive order on price transparency. For the first time, hospitals were required to disclose the real cost of procedures, enabling patients to compare prices before receiving care. While the Biden administration weakened enforcement, Trump doubled down in his second term with an even stronger push for what he called "radical transparency." Radical transparency is the antidote to healthcare's worst inefficiencies. When patients and employers can see wide price differences for the same procedures – even within the same hospital system – the games played behind the scenes get exposed. These inflated prices often have little to do with quality and everything to do with how well insurers negotiate – or how many middlemen take a cut. The same is true for prescription drugs. PBMs – giant corporations that control which drugs are covered and at what cost – use their market power to inflate prices. Three PBMs control 80 percent of the market. They're often subsidiaries of major insurers, forming vertically integrated monopolies. New data from the Pacific Research Institute shows that most PBMs skim more money off high-cost prescriptions than European countries charge. It's no wonder Americans are paying more. Hospitals play a role as well. Many exploit a well-intentioned federal program known as 340B, which allows them to purchase drugs at steep discounts. Instead of passing the savings to patients, they bill insurers full price and pocket the difference. The program was meant to expand care for low-income patients, but there's little oversight to ensure this happens. President Trump's recent executive order on drug pricing targets this broken system. By creating a pathway for manufacturers to sell directly to patients, health plans, pharmacies, and clinics – without the markup – he's offering a way to bypass the middlemen. This isn't theory – it's already working. When insulin makers launched direct-to-consumer programs, they sold the same drug at one-fourth the price patients were paying through insurance – while still making a profit. That's the power of real market competition – without a single government price control. This stands in sharp contrast to the Left's top-down vision. Whether it's price controls, centralized purchasing, or government-run insurance, the left's answer is always more bureaucracy. But more bureaucracy means more complexity – and more room for middlemen to thrive. Perhaps the most visionary part of President Trump's health care agenda is his call to Make America Healthy Again. For decades, we've operated a "sick care" system focused on treating illness after it strikes. Trump's approach is different. It emphasizes prevention, lifestyle, and personal responsibility – turning Americans from passive recipients into active participants in their own health. In this model, the government's role isn't to run the system but to create an environment in which patients and doctors can lead – with access to better tools, more transparency, and useful information. That means clearer labeling for ultra-processed foods, ensuring gold standard scientific data free of conflicts of interest, and addressing environmental factors that contribute to chronic disease. These kinds of structural reforms empower people to make informed choices and live healthier lives – without mandates or micromanagement. It's a model that eliminates the ultimate middleman: the system itself. President Trump's leadership has laid the groundwork for a transparent, patient-centered, free-market healthcare system. But the job isn't done. Congress should join him in continuing this fight – not just to lower costs, but to restore power to the American people. America deserves a healthcare system that benefits Americans – not industry middlemen.
