Geothermal powerplants and projects: certification and environmental review.

Assembly Member Rogers, with coauthor Papan, advances a measure that widens the Energy Commission’s Environmental Leadership Development Project framework to include geothermal powerplants and projects comprising multiple geothermal units on a single site, while introducing a conditional, cross-bill sequencing mechanism that governs when the amendments take effect.

The core change adds geothermal facilities to the list of eligible project types for ELDP certification, which provides CEQA streamlining and related benefits through the Energy Commission. The definition of “Facility” covers: (1) solar or wind plants of 50 megawatts or more; (2) energy storage systems capable of 200 megawatt-hours or more; (3) stationary thermal powerplants of 50 megawatts or more that do not burn fossil or nuclear fuels; (4) discretionary projects with a certified capital investment commitment (originally at least $250 million over five years for manufacturing or related energy technologies); (5) an electrical transmission line within the state; (6) hydrogen production facilities funded from specified state or federal programs; and (7) geothermal powerplants or multi-geothermal projects on one site. The term “Site” remains defined as any location where an eligible facility is built or proposed.

The measure also revises thresholds for discretionary projects, lowering the capital investment requirement to at least $100 million in one variant of the text, while maintaining the same array of facility categories and the overarching ELDP framework. The relationship to the broader statutory framework is codified to operate in conjunction with another bill, with a sequencing rule that determines which amendments apply and when, based on enactment timing and order.

Implementation hinges on a cross-bill operative mechanism. Section 2 specifies that the amendments to Section 25545 take effect only if both measures are enacted and become effective by a specified date, with AB 531 required to be enacted after the other measure. If those conditions are met, the earlier amendments stay in place until the later operative date, at which point AB 531’s provisions supersede the earlier ones. This creates a staged transition for the ELDP changes and their interaction with the broader environmental-review framework.

Stakeholders spanning geothermal developers, existing ELDP participants (solar, wind, storage, hydrogen, and transmission projects), tribal and community groups, local governments, and state agencies would need to monitor the sequencing of enactment and any resulting shifts in project timelines, certification processes, and administrative workloads. The measure preserves the ELDP mechanism wherein certification can substitute for certain permits and streamline environmental review, while explicitly extending eligibility to geothermal projects and clarifying the investor-thresholds for discretionary manufacturing undertakings within the program.