Three major pieces of legislation have been passed since 1970 to promote the development of geothermal resources in the U.S. These are the Geothermal steam act of 1970 (PL 91-581,the Geothermal Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974P-4,and the five Acts that made up the 1978 National Energy Act - the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 -(a_95-61.7), the Energy Tax Act of 1978 OM 95-618), the National Energy Conservation Policy Act OM 65-619), the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of 1978 (PL 95-620), and the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 (PL 95-621). These initiatives go a long way toward establishing a legal and regulatory framework favorable to commercial geothermal energy exploration and development, and incentives to stimulate early and widespread use by a variety of users. However, all of these acts require improvements if the geothermal energy utilization objectives of the Council are to be met. Consequently, the Institutional Barrier Panel has developed a recommended Geothermal Energy Omnibus 1 Bill to complete the legislative needs