Local Government Management of Geothermal Resources

Abstract

Potential policy options for regulation of geothermal resources by local government may be conceptualized along a continuum from no regulation to total regulation of the industry. The practical lower limit is regulation of nuisance impacts such as pollutant emissions, noise, and the like. Options along the regulatory continuum may be grouped roughly into two categories based on the information required to regulate surface manifestations of geothermal development versus that required to control the resource itself. Management scenarios controlling the resource itself form the practical upper limit on local government regulation of geothermal resources. Local government must carefully balance the benefits to be derived from seeking to control the resource itself against the costs of that regulation. It is not clear that local government should or can impose regulations on use of the resource itself.