Pahrump Valley Times 6-16-10

Nye, Esmeralda parcels are auctioned by BLM

Fifteen parcels in Esmeralda County and seven in Nye County were part of the latest U.S. Bureau of Land Management geothermal lease auction last month.

The BLM offered 114 parcels totaling 328,020 acres, of which 75 were sold totaling 212,369 acres. It brought in $2.76 million in revenues.

The Esmeralda County leases were centered around Highway 265 from Highway 6 to Silver Peak. Other leases were sold on the west side of Highway 264 in Fish Lake Valley, and parcels on both the northwest side and southeast side of the Silver Peak Range.

Nye County leases were in a north-south line east of the Hot Creek Range. One lease was at Warm Springs at the junction of Highway 6 and Highway 375, a few more parcels were auctioned off north of Warm Springs, and two other leases were sold south of there.

Two more parcels are in southern Nye County, one on the north side of Highway 373 in Amargosa Valley a few miles west of Highway 95, another just east of Lathrop Wells at the junction of Highways 373 and 95.

HOV Energy, of Las Vegas, bid $2 per acre on five parcels totaling 18,423 acres in Nye County. Nevada Ltd. of Reno, bid $2 per acre for two more parcels totaling 5,520 acres in Nye County.

HOV Energy also bid $2 per acre on two parcels totaling 7,744 acres in Esmeralda County.

Ram Power-of-Reno submitted the majority of the bids in Esmeralda County, on 23,228 acres. Most of the parcels drew bids of $2 to $5 per parcel, except one 2,811 acre parcel which drew a bid of $170 per acre, generating $477,870 in lease revenue. Another 1,920 acre Esmeralda County lease drew a bid of $60 per acre, raising revenue of $115,200.

Venture Prospects LLC, of Charlotte, N.C., submitted bids on 16,595 acres in Esmeralda County. Their bid amounts ranged from $2 to $3.50 per acre.

Sierra Geothermal Power Inc., of Olympia, Wash., bid $30 per acre for a parcel totaling 2,877 acres in Esmeralda County, generating $86,340.

The top price paid for a parcel was $1,000 per acre for 640 acres in geothermal-rich Churchill County, paid out by Magma Energy U.S. Corp. of Reno.

There are 28 active geothermal projects in Nevada. Thirteen are either wholly or partly in Churchill County.

Locally, Sierra Geothermal Power Corp. is in status II -- the exploratory drilling phase -- for the Alum project for which the company has leased 7,198 acres in Esmeralda County. Raser Technologies Inc. is in status III for their Trail Canyon project on which they have a 2,527-acre lease in Nye County and for which they are submitting an operations and utilization plan to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.

Nevada receives half the geothermal lease revenues, 40 percent goes to a reclamation fund, 10 percent to the federal government.

U.S. Sen.'s John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., co-sponsored a bill in March that would redirect one-fourth of the geothermal royalties back to the counties, give half to the state and the remainder to the federal government..

"Nevada has been losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars each month and ensuring that our state receives its share of geothermal royalties is of the upmost importance," Ensign said.

"Rural counties in states like Nevada with large percentages of public land rely heavily on revenue sources like [payment in lieu of taxes] and geothermal energy production," Reid said.