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| (Courtesy Lahontan Valley News) |
In a Tuesday campaign stop in Northern Nevada, President Barack Obama highlighted local issues and education policies at Truckee Meadows Community College.
Since 2009, county officials in Nevada and five other Western states claimed the administration has hindered geothermal rents and royalties owed to Churchill County among others in Nevada. An obscure amendment to a House bill that derived sales, bonuses, rentals and royalties under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was diverted back to the federal government as originally provided in the Geothermal Act of 1970.
Local politicians and Nevada's Washington, D.C. delegation, to include Sens. Harry Reid and then Congressman Dean Heller have battled the federal government in collection of the money, which consists of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
“What we have to do, I think, is find the right approach, the right balance between us needing to reduce our federal deficit but making sure we are not doing on the back's of local communities,” Obama said. “Trying to streamline the process and reduce bureaucracy. That's a goal I've had since I came to office.”
He added he wants to create more geothermal projects in addition to the solar properties in Clark County on public lands to create more jobs. Obama said opening public land is key to the success of more green energy, but he said the federal government and states must work together in order to balance conservation and develop new energy sources.
“Geothermal in Northern Nevada is another reason we need to keep making these investments,” he explained. “Nevada is benefiting from some of the cutting edge solar projects in the world.”
Obama aimed his energy policies and success toward Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The president was critical of Romney's plan to keep giving $4 billion per year of taxpayer subsidies to oil companies.
Obama said he will continue to streamline government agencies to aide the public and reduce paperwork and the bureaucracy.
“We identified 15 projects of national importance … some of which had seven years timelines on them for approval,” he said. “We said let's see how much we can reduce the red tape. We took some of these projects down from seven years to one. These same principles can apply for geothermal.”
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