LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – For another year, Lake County – and many other counties across the Western United States – will have to fight a federal proposal that would cut royalty payments to areas that produce geothermal resources.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors – at the suggestion of County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox – approved sending letters to the county's federal legislators asking that the geothermal royalty payments continue.

The payments are made to 31 counties in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, New Mexico and Utah, according to the Department of the Interior.

Cox told the board that President Barack Obama's deficit reduction program proposes to eliminate the payments, which have brought million of dollars – used for community improvement and parks projects – to Lake County over the last several years.

Lake County received nearly $4.4 million from the royalties between 2007 and 2009, the most of any county nationwide for that time period, according to federal statistics.

The federal government first attempted to eliminate the royalties in 2009, as Lake County News has reported.

In a bill signed late last year, Congress reinstated the payments, but elimination of which is now back on the table.

Cox told the board Tuesday that on Oct. 13 the House Democrats' Natural Resources Committee also approved eliminating the payments as part of its own deficit reduction plan.

The last time the federal government proposed to get rid of the payments it happened very suddenly, with no notice to the affected counties and no chance to voice their opposition, Cox told Lake County News.

“This time we are ahead of the game,” he said.

In his effort to lobby to save the payments, Cox said he has received a lot of good feedback from other counties that stand to lose the revenue.

He said many of the Nevada counties he's contacted believe that Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, is committed to retaining the current distribution of geothermal royalties, and that he will be successful in blocking proposed legislation that would discontinue the royalty payments.

Congressman Mike Thompson, who aided in the fight to have the royalties reinstated last year, has been in contact with Sen. Reid, House leaders and Obama administration officials and also has expressed optimism about the final outcome, according to Cox.

But with the royalty payments once again in danger, Cox said it requires the county to step up its efforts to protect the funds.

“In reality, these revenues represent a very small amount of compensation in return for the natural resources that are being extracted from the counties in which they are located,” he said. “It is astounding to me that the federal government would be talking about taking those revenues away from us yet again. It would have no significant impact on the federal deficit.”

He added, “I think it's just something we're going to have to keep on top of every year.”

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