New Bill Creates Geothermal 'Fixer' at BLM, Offering 25% Bonuses to Speed Up Green Energy Permits

If you’ve ever tried to get a major project approved by a government agency, you know the process can feel like wading through molasses. This new bill, the Geothermal Ombudsman for National Deployment and Optimal Reviews Act, is essentially a high-powered wrench designed to speed up the approval process for geothermal energy projects on public lands.

The Bureaucracy Fixer: Meet the Geothermal Ombudsman

Within 60 days of this bill passing, the Department of the Interior must appoint a Geothermal Ombudsman inside the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Think of this person as the ultimate project manager and dispute mediator. Their job, laid out in Section 2, is to be the central point of contact, connecting local BLM offices with the national coordination office. More importantly, if a company applying for a permit—what the bill calls a "geothermal authorization"—is running into problems with a local office, the Ombudsman steps in for dispute resolution. They are also tasked with monitoring how fast permits are moving across the entire BLM system and reporting back to Congress annually on their performance.

The Permit Task Force: Staffing Up for Speed

The bill also establishes a Geothermal Permitting Task Force, led by the Ombudsman. This Task Force has the authority to solve a classic bureaucratic bottleneck: lack of specialized staff. If a local BLM office is short on experts and a critical geothermal permit is stalled, the Task Force can temporarily assign staff from any other BLM office or bureau that has the necessary expertise (SEC. 2). This is a big deal because it means the bill prioritizes these renewable energy permits by moving resources where they are needed most. For example, if a field office in Nevada needs a specific geological engineer to sign off on a project, the Task Force can pull one from an office in Wyoming, provided the home office head agrees the move won't slow down their existing work.

The 25% Incentive: Keeping the Experts on Task

To ensure these highly specialized employees stay focused on these critical, time-sensitive permits, the Ombudsman can offer them a "retention allowance"—a bonus of up to 25% of their regular salary (SEC. 2. Keeping Key Staff). This is the bill’s way of saying, “We need you to stick with this until the job is done.” For the employee, this is a significant financial incentive to take on the temporary assignment and see it through. However, there’s a catch: this retention allowance is not considered part of their basic pay and can be taken away later without the employee having the right to appeal the decision. While this gives the Ombudsman maximum flexibility to manage the budget, it also means the bonus isn't a guaranteed, permanent part of their compensation.

Real-World Impact: What This Means for You

For the average person, this bill is all about accelerating the deployment of geothermal energy—a reliable, always-on source of renewable power. Faster permitting means faster construction, which translates to more clean energy coming online sooner. If you live in an area that relies heavily on public lands for energy development, this could stabilize or increase your access to renewable power.

On the administrative side, the biggest practical challenge is the staff reassignment. While the bill mandates that moving staff shouldn't "slow down the work at the employee's home office," that's a subjective metric. If a specialist is pulled to speed up a geothermal project, it could potentially delay other projects or programs at their original office, such as conservation efforts or non-geothermal leasing applications. The success of this bill hinges entirely on the Ombudsman’s ability to manage this delicate internal balancing act without creating new logjams elsewhere in the BLM.