30 U.S.C. § 1123 : US Code - Section 1123: Resource inventory and assessment program

Search 30 U.S.C. § 1123 : US Code - Section 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.