STEAM Act
Official title: A bill to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to expedite geothermal exploration and development in previously studied or developed areas.
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Streamlining Thermal Energy through Advanced Mechanisms Act or the STEAM Act
This bill expedites the environmental review of certain geothermal energy activities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Specifically, the bill expands the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to include certain geothermal exploration or development activities in an existing categorical exclusion from NEPA for certain oil or gas activities.
A categorical exclusion applies to a class of actions that do not require an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement under NEPA.
The categorical exclusion established by the bill applies to drilling a geothermal well (1) in an area where drilling has occurred previously within the five years prior to the date when drilling begins; or (2) within a developed field for which an approved land use plan or environmental document prepared under NEPA determined drilling to be a reasonably foreseeable activity, so long as the plan or document was approved within the five years prior to the date when drilling begins.
- Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- FERVO ENERGY COMPANY
- GOOGLE CLIENT SERVICES LLC
- LONGBOW PUBLIC POLICY GROUP, LLC
- CLEAN ENERGY BUYERS ASSOCIATION (FORMERLY RENEWABLE ENERGY BUYERS ALLIANCE)
- CLEAN ENERGY BUYERS ASSOCIATION (FORMERLY RENEWABLE ENERGY BUYERS ALLIANCE)
- CLEAN ENERGY BUYERS ASSOCIATION (FORMERLY RENEWABLE ENERGY BUYERS ALLIANCE)
Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Energy, Dept of
- Interior, Dept of (DOI)
- White House Office
- Treasury, Dept of
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Commerce, Dept of (DOC)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 456: STEAM Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-456/
"S. 456: STEAM Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-456/.
S. 456, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-456/.
[S. 456: STEAM Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-456/)