GEO Act

The GEO Act (HR301) was reported out of the House Natural Resources Committee on May 20, 2026, and placed on the Union Calendar for floor consideration. This bill amends the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to mandate that the Secretary of the Interior must approve or deny geothermal drilling permits and sundry notices within 60 days after completing all NEPA, ESA, and NHPA compliance requirements. Critically, pending litigation does not stop the clock — unless a federal court vacates or enjoins the underlying lease. There is no funding authorization in this bill — it is a process reform, not a spending bill. The money trail runs through accelerated project development: shorter permitting timelines reduce capital carry costs, improve project finance certainty, and enable faster revenue generation from geothermal power sales and associated byproducts (e.g., direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines). The structural winners are companies with existing geothermal lease positions and equipment suppliers. $GEV provides steam turbines and generators for utility-scale geothermal — faster permit processing directly supports order intake. $OXY, through TerraLithium, has the most advanced DLE-geothermal integration at the Salton Sea — shorter permitting accelerates its lithium revenue pathway. and have geothermal exposures that are too small to move their financials materially. No real market data is provided for specific ticker price movements. The competitive landscape includes geothermal pure-plays like Ormat Technologies ($ORA) and Berkshire Hathaway Energy (privately held) — but $ORA's primary operations are outside the continental US (Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya), and the GEO Act applies to federal lands in the US, so $ORA's exposure is limited. Next steps: The bill must pass the House floor, then the Senate. It is authorized (not appropriations) legislation with no funding — so passage is procedural. H.R. 301 has a Republican sponsor in a Republican-controlled House, and Committee passage was unanimous — suggesting bipartisan support. Senate companion bill status unknown. Enactment possible within 2026.