Title 30 › Chapter CHAPTER 23— - GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES › § 1001
Defines key words used in the chapter. "Secretary" means the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. "Geothermal lease" means a lease issued under this chapter. "Geothermal resources" covers steam, hot water, hot brines, gases from fluids put into geothermal formations, the heat or energy in those formations, and any byproducts from them. "Byproduct" means any mineral (not including oil, hydrocarbon gas, or helium) found with geothermal steam that is worth less than 75 percent of the steam’s value or is not worth extracting by itself because of small amount, poor quality, or technical difficulty. "Known geothermal resources area" means an area that, in the Secretary’s judgment, experienced people would think has good enough prospects for geothermal recovery to justify spending money. "Significant thermal features within units of the National Park System" includes thermal features listed or designated in Section 1026(a)(1) and in the Federal Register notice of August 3, 1987 (Vol. 52, No. 148 Fed. Reg. 28790), Crater Lake National Park, features in Big Bend National Park and Lake Mead National Recreation Area proposed as significant in the Federal Register notice of February 13, 1987 (Vol. 52, No. 30 Fed. Reg. 4700), and any features later added under section 1026(a)(2). "Direct use" means using geothermal resources for energy needs other than making electricity, such as commercial, home, farm, or public facility heating.
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Mineral Lands and Mining — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
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Citation
30 U.S.C. § 1001
Title 30 — Mineral Lands and Mining
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73