Senate committee advances bill to accelerate geothermal development in Colorado

Senate panel advances SB 142 and adopts amendments requiring labor protections and data-sharing for geothermal development.

Senate Bill 142, aimed at accelerating geothermal electricity and thermal-energy networks in Colorado, moved out of the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee on a 5–2 vote after sponsors and witnesses described how the bill would clear legal and market barriers for projects and create a voluntary program to collect subsurface data from orphaned and marginal wells.

The bill, as explained by sponsor Senator Ball, grants municipalities and special districts explicit authority to aggregate thermal demand across public and private buildings to create thermal-energy networks and allows local governments to enter into agreements to develop geothermal projects. Sponsor remarks emphasized that geothermal can provide clean, firm electricity and local jobs and that Colorado’s geology and existing oil-and-gas workforce make the state well positioned to scale the industry.

Witnesses from state agencies, utilities, labor and industry told the committee they supported the bill with the amendment package that was adopted. Julie Murphy, director of the Energy and Carbon Management Commission within the Department of Natural Resources, said SB 142 would “advance the state's work on geothermal energy” by authorizing a voluntary program to collect and disseminate subsurface temperature and formation data and by delivering a report of recommendations by November 2026. Matthew Sayers of the Colorado Geological Survey and industry developers described the technical steps required to evaluate existing data, assess orphan wells, and, where funded, drill and characterize new sites.

Developers and utilities said the bill gives the market clearer procurement signals. Jonathan Power, a developer with Game Creek Holdings, urged policy that would allow utilities to consider geothermal in power-purchase agreements and told senators small distribution-scale projects (he described a 20-megawatt example) could be deployed faster than utility-scale generation. Taylor Moot of Xcel Energy said modeling shows hundreds of megawatts of geothermal could be viable in the 2030s and that the bill’s procurement pathway would help prioritize Colorado projects.

Labor and construction representatives emphasized prevailing-wage and apprenticeship protections in the adopted amendment. Phil Hayes of the National Electrical Contractors Association and Cecil Courtney of Pipefitters Local 208 said the amendment ties relevant geothermal projects into Colorado’s existing labor framework and prevailing-wage requirements when statutory thresholds are met. Several union witnesses including Jeremy Ross (IBEW) and Climate Jobs Colorado asked the committee to retain the labor language.

One notable provision kept in the amended bill creates a program to make temperature and subsurface information from orphaned wells accessible to developers, an idea sponsors said would reduce exploration risk. The sponsors removed an original section that would have specifically authorized resale of recovered thermal energy by secondary-heat producers and removed a provision that would have allowed local governments to create thermal networks without a public vote; the sponsor explained those changes during amendment L003.

The committee adopted two sponsor-led amendments (L003 and L006) that clarified labor standards, affordability considerations, and removed the more controversial sale-of-recovered-heat language. After debate and the amendment votes, the committee voted to refer the bill to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation on a 5–2 roll call.

What happens next: SB 142 will be considered by the Committee of the Whole; if passed there, the bill would continue through the legislative process where further amendments and committee review are possible.