January 13, 2023: -Organizers of the art and cultural festival Burning Man and a few environmental firms have filed a lawsuit regarding the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for more than the agencies getting approved for a geothermal exploration project in northwestern Nevada.

On Monday, the suit, filed in Nevada federal court, alleged that the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act and different laws in 2022 when it failed to assess the environmental impacts of an exploration planning by the developer Ormat.

The suit alleges that the agency performed a limited environmental review that considered the project’s impacts on Gerlach. The town only has a population of regarding 100 people but provides a gateway to the festival, attracting 70,000 people each year.

Burning Man, owning or operating over 4,000 acres in the area, arguing the BLM’s approval for Ormat to increase 19 geothermal drilling probe wells and build 2.8 miles of roads ignored many potential environmental harms.

The festival argues that final geothermal development would deplete the untamed hot springs directly adjacent to the project site in a desert portion “that otherwise does not have water abundance.”

Last year, the Biden administration announced a goal to expand the use of geothermal energy, renewable energy from water heated inside the Earth, to aid the country’s transition from planet-warming fossil fuels. The Energy Department stated it plans to curb the costs of geothermal energy systems by almost 90% by 2035.