BLM to hold Utah geothermal lease sale on April 2025
Mud Lake, Tushar Mts, Beaver County, Utah (source: Andrey Zharkikh / flickr, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga
16 Jan 2025
The Bureau of Land Management will be offering 15 parcels in three counties in Utah for a geothermal lease sale to be held on April 2025.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah State Office will be holding a geothermal lease sale offering 15 parcels totaling 50,813 acres on public lands in Beaver, Iron, and Sevier counties in Utah. The geothermal lease sale will be held on 8 April 2025 online at EnergyNet.
The BLM had previously published the environmental assessment of the proposed geothermal lease sale and accepted public comments. The environmental assessment, public input, as well as the relevant maps, can be accessed at the BLM National NEPA Register.
For each parcel leased, 50% of the bid, rental receipts, and subsequent royalties go to the State of Utah, an additional 25% goes to the county where the lease is located, and the remaining 25% goes to the U.S. Treasury.
BLM issues competitive geothermal leases for an initial 10-year period. The leases allow the lessee to explore for and develop potential geothermal resources. The leases may be extended if the lessee establishes production or provides proof of diligent exploration.
The BLM has authority to manage geothermal resource leasing, exploration, and development on approximately 245 million surface acres of public lands, as well as in any lands where the United States retains the subsurface mineral estate. Highly successful geothermal lease sales have been done by the BLM in the past years, particularly in Nevada. The BLM had also recently published a scoping letter relating to a planned geothermal lease sale in Idaho.
Source: BLM
