[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 30USC1123]
TITLE 30--MINERAL LANDS AND MINING
CHAPTER 24--GEOTHERMAL ENERGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION
SUBCHAPTER I--GEOTHERMAL ENERGY COORDINATION AND MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Sec. 1123. Resource inventory and assessment program
(a) The Chairman shall initiate a resource inventory and assessment
program with the objective of making regional and national appraisals of
all types of geothermal resources, including identification of promising
target areas for industrial exploration and development. The specific
goals shall include--
(1) the improvement of geophysical, geochemical, geological, and
hydrological techniques necessary for locating and evaluating
geothermal resources;
(2) the development of better methods for predicting the power
potential and longevity of geothermal reservoirs;
(3) the determination and assessment of the nature and power
potential of the deeper unexplored parts of high temperature
geothermal convection systems; and
(4) the survey and assessment of regional and national
geothermal resources of all types.
(b) The Chairman, acting through the United States Geological Survey
and other appropriate agencies, shall--
(1) develop and carry out a general plan for the orderly
inventorying of all forms of geothermal resources of the Federal
lands and, where consistent with property rights and determined by
the Chairman to be in the national interest, of non-Federal lands;
(2) conduct regional surveys, based upon such a general plan,
using innovative geological, geophysical, geochemical, and
stratagraphic drilling techniques, which will lead to a national
inventory of geothermal resources in the United States;
(3) publish and make available maps, reports, and other
documents developed from such surveys to encourage and facilitate
the commercial development of geothermal resources for beneficial
use and consistent with the national interest;
(4) make such recommendations for legislation or administrative
regulations as may from time to time appear to be necessary to make
Federal leasing, environmental and taxing policy for geothermal
resources consistent with known inventories of various resource
types, with the current state of technologies for geothermal energy
development, and with current evaluations of the environmental
impacts of such development; and
(5) participate with appropriate Federal agencies and non-
Federal entities in research to develop, improve, and test
technologies for the discovery and evaluation of all forms of
geothermal resources, and conduct research into the principles
controlling the location, occurrence, size, temperature, energy
content, producibility, and economic lifetimes of geothermal
reservoirs.
(Pub. L. 93-410, title I, Sec. 103, Sept. 3, 1974, 88 Stat. 1082; Pub.
L. 95-238, title V, Sec. 503, Feb. 25, 1978, 92 Stat. 86; Pub. L. 102-
154, title I, Nov. 13, 1991, 105 Stat. 1000.)
Amendments
1978--Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 95-238 inserted ``or administrative
regulations'' after ``legislation'' and ``, environmental and taxing''
after ``leasing''.
Change of Name
``United States Geological Survey'' substituted for ``Geological
Survey'' in subsec. (b) pursuant to provision of title I of Pub. L. 102-
154, set out as a note under section 31 of Title 43, Public Lands.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
