New Mexico passes new favourable geothermal legislation
New Mexico State Capitol, Santa Fe, U.S. (source: flickr/ Jim Bowen, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
18 Feb 2016
The State of New Mexico has passed a new Geothermal Resources Development Act that is to open the door for more geothermal development.
Local news from New Mexico in the U.S. report that the State’s Senate and House have passed new geothermal legislation, which now needs to be signed off by the Governor for the State.
The SB 223 is a bill that reorganizes and cleans up the state’s current laws concerning geothermal. It creates the Geothermal Resources Development Act (Act) and repeals the Geothermal Resources Conservation Act.
“New Mexico is rich in geothermal resources, my bill will help to simplify the development of this “green” resource and encourage its use,” Senator Griggs said. “It is a good bill for New Mexico and opens the door for more economic development.”
“If it becomes law, the new Act transfers duties to regulate geothermal resources from the Oil Conservation Division to the Energy Conservation Management Division of the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department.
The new Act provides a permit from the state engineer is not required for the use of hot ground water as incident to the development of geothermal resources when certain conditions are met when either such use must not divert any ground water or all diverted ground water must be re-injected as soon as practical.
Rules must include provisions to protect the environment and the public against damage from the production of geothermal resources; require financial assurance for such projects; and require abandoned projects to be reclaimed.”
Here some interesting facts on geothermal resources in New Mexico.
Source: KRWG
