GAO urges BLM to overhaul geothermal permitting

The Government Accountability Office issued three recommendations to the Bureau of Land Management's Director, urging the agency to finalize geothermal resources handbooks, create a unified mechanism to track permitting activity, and set processing time-frame goals. The recommendations are open and await agency response.

GAO's analysis shows that BLM's geothermal program has handled a rapidly expanding workload. Land nominations rose from about 25,800 acres in 2020 to more than a million acres in 2025, and competitive lease sales have increased in parallel. Annual drilling permits climbed from seven in 2019 to 68 in 2024.

Developers reported inconsistent experiences navigating the permitting process, citing terminology gaps and the absence of publicly available handbooks - drafts that have lingered since at least 2022. Additionally, developers lack visibility into permit status, and BLM does not maintain comprehensive data on permitting activity across field offices, limiting its ability to identify backlogs.

The GAO report notes that geothermal power plants on federal land currently provide 2,600 megawatts of capacity and, in 2022, generated enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes, representing roughly 65 percent of the nation's geothermal capacity. Streamlined permitting could accelerate additional development and associated revenue for federal, state, and county governments.

Until the BLM Director implements the open recommendations, GAO will monitor agency actions and update its assessment of progress.