USA:

Bi-Partisan Effort to Protect Geothermal Royalties to Counties (Lake County Record-Bee)

Congressman Mike Thompson
(D- St. Helena)

Congressman Mike Thompson (D- St. Helena), whose constituency includes The Geysers geothermal field, has announced that he has led a bipartisan letter to President Barack Obama regarding clean energy royalties.

The letter also signed by Representatives Mark Amodei (R-NV), Steven Pearce (R-NM), Joe Heck (R-NV), Jared Huffman (D-CA), John Garamendi (D-CA) and Juan Vargas (D-CA), asks Obama to not repeal the sharing of geothermal royalty payments with counties, which was targeted for cuts in Obama's fiscal year.

"Geothermal development comes at a cost so if a community invests in developing geothermal energy they deserve to get their fair share in returns," Thompson said.

"Repealing geothermal royalty payments to counties is a short sighted, fiscally irresponsible plan that will have no meaningful impact on deficit reduction. It will strip away funds that our counties use to pay for public safety, road maintenance and law enforcement."

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