Bill Text: CA AB527 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: geothermal exploratory projects.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-03-03 - Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. [AB527 Detail]
Download: California-2025-AB527-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 527
| Introduced by Assembly Member Papan (Coauthor: Assembly Member Rogers) |
February 10, 2025 |
An act to add Section 3715.6 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 527, as introduced, Papan.
California Environmental Quality Act: geothermal exploratory projects.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if the lead agency finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.
Existing law establishes the Geologic Energy Management Division in the Department of Conservation, under the direction of the State Oil
and Gas Supervisor, who is required to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells so as to permit the owners or operators of those wells to utilize all methods and practices known to the industry for the purpose of increasing the ultimate recovery of geothermal resources, as provided. Existing law requires the division to be the lead agency for all geothermal exploratory projects for purposes of CEQA, as specified, and authorizes the division to delegate its lead agency responsibility for geothermal exploratory projects to a county that has adopted a geothermal element for its general plan.
This bill would provide that a geothermal exploratory project, as defined, that the lead agency determines meets specified criteria is conclusively presumed to have satisfied the requirements of CEQA for the geothermal exploratory project, including to support the issuance of any permit, funding, or other approval by a state or local agency, as
provided. The bill would require, for a project undertaken by a private entity that satisfies the requirements of CEQA pursuant to this provision, the project applicant to certify to the lead agency that either the entirety of the project is a public work or that certain prevailing wage requirements are satisfied.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) On October 22, 2024, the United States Department of the Interior, under the leadership of President Joseph Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, introduced a new categorical exclusion from the National Environmental Policy Act for “geothermal resource confirmation activities,” also known as geothermal exploratory projects, on federal lands.
(b) This exclusion reflects a recognition that geothermal exploratory projects are temporary activities that, when meeting a high standard of environmental care and stewardship, should result in no permanent negative impacts on the environment.
(c) Geothermal exploration is the necessary first phase of developing new geothermal energy resources, including next-generation geothermal energy resources like advanced closed-loop and enhanced geothermal systems. California markets feature a very high demand for geothermal energy, in part driven by Public Utilities Commission decisions 21-06-035 (June 24, 2021), Decision Requiring Procurement to Address Mid-Term Reliability (2023-2026), and 24-08-064 (August 22, 2024), Decision Determining Need for Centralized Procurement of Long Lead-Time Resources, which directed California’s load-serving entities and the Department of Water Resources to procure significant amounts of new geothermal energy over the years to come.
(d) The resource portfolios identified by the Public Utilities Commission to meet state climate goals are increasingly relying on out-of-state next-generation
geothermal energy development, which both put California’s climate goals at risk and establishes an unnecessary but permanent export of wealth by California ratepayers.
(e) The first commercial-scale next-generation geothermal energy resources are currently under development in Nevada and Utah due to those states’ favorable regulatory environments, but nearly all of that energy is anticipated to be sold to buyers in California.
(f) Over 80 percent of Nevada and over 60 percent of Utah are federal lands where the categorical exclusion will apply, as compared to less than half of land in California. This has the potential to exacerbate the perceived favorability of those states’ regulatory environments and drive more development aimed at supplying the California market out of California.
(g) California must take an
active role in ensuring that new geothermal energy projects built to supply the California market lead to investment and job creation in California and do not lead to the export of investment, industry knowledge, and the California geothermal, oil, and gas workforce to neighboring states.
(h) Next-generation geothermal energy development presents a significant opportunity to attract investment capital and realize community economic development and workforce development benefits in California, including the development and preservation of a skilled and trained construction workforce to carry out projects, long-term apprenticeship and job creation, and the development of a next-generation geothermal energy supply chain.
(i) California launched the global revolution in conventional geothermal technologies in the 20th century. It has the geologic resources, workforce, and clean energy
economy to do so again in the 21st century if decisive state action is taken today. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that there could be 27.9 gigawatts of development of next-generation geothermal resources in California by 2050—over double that of any other state.
(j) Aligning state law with forward-thinking federal policy on geothermal exploration is a critical component of building a strong geothermal energy economy in California.
SEC. 2.
Section 3715.6 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:3715.6.
(a) A geothermal exploratory project, as defined in Section 21065.5, that the lead agency determines meets the criteria of the categorical exclusion described in pages 84380 to 84383, inclusive, of Volume 89, Number 204 of the Federal Register (89 FR 84380) published on October, 22, 2024, shall be conclusively presumed to have satisfied the requirements of Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) for that geothermal exploratory project, including to support the issuance of any permit, funding, or other approval by a state or local agency for the geothermal exploratory project.(b) For a geothermal exploratory project undertaken by a private entity that satisfies the requirements of Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) pursuant to
subdivision (a), the project applicant shall certify to the lead agency that either of the following is true:
(1) The entirety of the geothermal exploratory project is a public work for purposes of Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1720) of Part 7 of Division 2 of the Labor Code.
(2) If the geothermal exploratory project is not in its entirety a public work, all construction workers employed in the execution of the project will be paid at least the general prevailing rate of per diem wages for the type of work and geographic area, as determined by the Director of Industrial Relations pursuant to Sections 1773 and 1773.9 of the Labor Code, except that apprentices registered in programs approved by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards may be paid at least the applicable apprentice prevailing rate. If the geothermal exploratory project is subject to this paragraph,
then, for those portions of the project that are not a public work, both of the following shall apply:
(A) The project applicant shall ensure that the prevailing wage requirement is included in all contracts for the performance of the work.
(B) All contractors and subcontractors shall pay to all construction workers employed in the execution of the work at least the general prevailing rate of per diem wages, except that apprentices registered in programs approved by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards may be paid at least the applicable apprentice prevailing rate.
