With U.S. House members sent home early twice in 2025 and the 43-day government shutdown later in the year, enthusiasm for geothermal energy had time to build up pressure.
It's now geysering out as major Trump administration policy pushes and new lease sales.
The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a legislative hearing last week on nine geothermal bills aimed at streamlining permitting and accelerating lease sales on federal lands.
At the same time, the Bureau of Land Management held a competitive geothermal lease sale in Idaho, offering 18 parcels totaling roughly 70,000 acres.
And in a policy shift, BLM issued an instruction memorandum requiring state offices to hold competitive geothermal lease sales annually — double the frequency required under the Geothermal Steam Act.
"This shift reflects the Department's commitment to accelerating the development of reliable, steady-state baseload energy, cutting red tape, and supporting the American Energy Dominance Agenda," the BLM memo stated.
Last week's House hearing showcased rare bipartisan agreement on energy policy, with bills from Republicans and Democrats advancing through the subcommittee.
Gaining Steam
Wyoming's Rep. Harriet Hageman serves on the subcommittee but is not listed as a sponsor or cosponsor of any of the nine geothermal bills discussed.
She did not speak at the hearing and has focused much of her energy work on oil, gas and coal legislation.
As for Hageman’s colleagues and fellow committee members from Western states — they are all in.
• Rep. Celeste Maloy's, R-Utah, GEO Act would require the Department of the Interior to review all geothermal authorizations within 60 days.
• Rep. Russ Fulcher's, R-Idaho, CLEAN Act would mandate annual lease sales.
• Rep. Susie Lee's, D-Nevada, STEAM Act would extend oil and gas permitting shortcuts to geothermal projects.
"America has vast geothermal resources that can provide reliable, baseload clean energy and create good-paying jobs that will power our 21st century economy," Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota, said in a statement. "Today's hearing highlights the need to streamline our permitting system and break down the barriers that are unnecessarily holding back our great geothermal potential on federal lands."
Wyoming's Position
A May U.S. Geological Survey report identified Wyoming's western border as part of a massive geothermal reserve in the Great Basin that could generate electricity equal to 10% of America's current power supply.
But state-specific research paints a more modest picture.
Most of Wyoming's geothermal resources sit below 200 degrees Fahrenheit — not ideal for generating electricity — and the state's hottest spot, Yellowstone National Park, is off-limits to development.
A 2022 assessment by Teverra for the Wyoming Energy Authority found the state better suited for direct-use heating applications than large-scale electricity generation.
The Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming and the southwestern part of the state around Rock Springs showed the most promise, but nothing approaching the potential of Nevada, Utah or Idaho.
Still, Wyoming's deep expertise in hydraulic fracturing could prove valuable as the geothermal industry scales up.
"We call it hydraulic stimulation. And oil and gas, they call it fracking. It's the same physics, but it's a different process," Rob Podgorney, geothermal program manager with Idaho National Laboratory, told Cowboy State Daily in June.
Industry Surge
The recent federal policy push comes as private investment in geothermal has exploded.
Fervo Energy, the company developing the world's largest enhanced geothermal project in Utah's Beaver County, raised $462 million in December from investors that include Google, Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Tesla co-founder JB Straubel.
Fervo's Cape Station project is expected to deliver 100 megawatts of baseload power to the grid in 2026, with an additional 400 megawatts online by 2028. The company has secured permits to eventually expand to 2 gigawatts.
Meanwhile, Utah-based Zanskar Geothermal announced it used artificial intelligence to discover a hidden geothermal reservoir in western Nevada — the first "blind" geothermal system discovered by industry in more than 30 years.
Data Demands
Much of the urgency around geothermal stems from soaring electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers.
A Rhodium Group analysis found that enhanced geothermal could supply up to 64% of projected data center demand growth by the early 2030s.
If data centers locate near the best geothermal resources, the technology could meet 100% of demand at prices 31%-45% lower than conventional approaches.
The National Laboratory of the Rockies released a study Dec. 4 showing that geothermal reservoir thermal energy storage could cut data center cooling costs from $15 per megawatt-hour to just $5 per megawatt-hour.
On Dec. 1, the National Laboratory of the Rockies became the new name for the facility in Golden, Colorado, formerly known as the National Renewable Energy Lab.
“We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources,” announced the Department of Energy. “Our highest priority is to invest in the scientific capabilities that will restore American manufacturing, drive down costs, and help this country meet its soaring energy demand.
"The National Laboratory of the Rockies will play a vital role in those efforts.”
For Wyoming, the data center connection offers an indirect path into the geothermal economy, even if development happens in neighboring states.
"Many of our employees come from the oil and gas sector, and it takes just two days to retrain a worker from oil and gas to work on an enhanced geothermal system rig," Fervo CEO Tim Latimer told Congress at the Dec. 16 hearing. "This is a pathway to scale a new energy industry while creating durable, good-paying jobs rooted in the existing U.S. workforce."
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
