Northern California Energy Company’s (NCPA) geothermal energy plant at The Geysers within the Mayacamas Mountains of Sonoma and Lake Counties in Northern California. (supply: SLB)
A brand new legislation has been authorized in California that decentralizes the authority for environmental evaluation and approval of exploratory geothermal drilling initiatives.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a brand new invoice that seeks to streamline approval processes for geothermal exploratory drilling initiatives within the State. The invoice proposes that counties act as lead companies for the environmental evaluation of such initiatives, clearing a serious bottleneck within the present system.
Meeting Invoice (AB) 1359, authored by Assemblymember Diane Papan, had been authorized by the State Legislature solely a few month in the past.
Earlier than the invoice, the drilling of exploratory wells for geothermal initiatives needed to undergo an environmental evaluation with the California Geologic Power Administration Division (CalGEM) designated because the lead company. The flaw with this method is that CalGEM was an understaffed division that didn’t have the capability to course of these initiatives at a suitable tempo.
With the brand new regulation in place, county planning departments can now take the lead in conducting environmental critiques of proposed exploratory drilling initiatives for geothermal. “That is completely important to replenish that renewable portfolio, beneath photo voltaic and wind, that are climate dependent,” stated Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore, who was in help of the proposal.
Sonoma County is especially well-positioned to learn from this new legislation. In 2023, Sonoma Clear Energy (SCP) gave the approval for three geothermal pilot initiatives within the Geothermal Alternative Zone (GeoZone) spanning the Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The initiatives shall be carried out by Eavor Inc., Cyrq Power, and Chevron New Energies.
“This appears like a bureaucratic technicality,” commented Lynda Hopkins, Sonoma County Supervisor and Chairwoman of the Sonoma Clear Energy board of administrators.
“It’s not a seismic shift in governance, however it’s an enormous deal for our geothermal effort, expediting the permits. There’s at present a multiyear backup within the state company who would in any other case course of these functions, and so we really feel like it is a nice partnership with the state.”
The plan going ahead can be for Allow Sonoma to just accept allow functions for geothermal and start the environmental evaluation. Allow Sonoma is already the lead company conducting environmental critiques for above-ground geothermal infrastructure.
“We’ve received the specialists in-house to have the ability to consider this work,” stated Tennis Wick, Division Director at Allow Sonoma. “We’ve labored 10 years to have the ability to construct a pure useful resource division with foresters and hydrologists and geologists and botanists, so now we’ve received the precise staff in place.”
Supply: The Press Democrat
