Thursday, December 19, 2019

USA, Washington D.C.: House Energy Sub-Committee Discusses Advanced Geothermal Research and Development Act

Lucas Statement at Energy Subcommittee Markup of Geothermal R&D Act (House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology)

Congressman
Frank Lucas
This morning, I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss my bill, H.R. 5374, the Advanced Geothermal Research and Development Act of 2019, which is co-sponsored by Chairwoman Johnson and authorizes research, development, and demonstration of innovative geothermal energy technologies at the Department of Energy (DOE).

My legislation will provide DOE with critical funding and program direction to enable innovative research in advanced geothermal technologies, strengthen the U.S. geothermal workforce, and encourage international collaboration. More specifically, it will authorize and expand the Department’s early-stage research in enhanced geothermal systems and the major user facilities needed to support this work.

H.R. 5374 will also authorize a new program in advanced geothermal computing and data science R&D. This will leverage DOE’s best-in-the-world computational capabilities to provide geothermal researchers with modeling and simulation tools that will allow them to more accurately understand complex subsurface systems.

Energy Subcommittee Markup of H.R. 2986, H.R. 5374, and H.R. 5428