(WO) — The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) has issued its second permit for a deep geopressured geothermal well, marking another milestone in the state’s emerging geothermal sector as regulators leverage decades of oil and gas oversight to support new subsurface energy technologies.
The permit was issued this month to Quidnet Energy Deployment LLC for a geothermal energy storage well in Galveston County.It follows the RRC’s first deep geopressured geothermal permit, issued in February 2025 to Sage Geosystems for a project in Atascosa County designed to provide energy storage for the San Miguel Electric Cooperative.
The RRC assumed jurisdiction over geothermal well regulation from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in September 2023. Because geothermal development shares many of the same drilling, completion and subsurface engineering practices used in the oil and gas industry, the agency said it is applying its existing regulatory expertise to oversee the sector’s growth while maintaining environmental and safety standards.
“Since assuming jurisdiction over geothermal well regulations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in September 2023, the RRC has remained committed to taking a deliberate permitting approach that supports the responsible growth of this new technology,” said RRC Executive Director Wei Wang. “This work in geothermal energy is yet another example of how the RRC’s expertise in responsible subsurface regulation helps keep Texas at the forefront of energy development.”
Texas is also seeing rapid growth in shallow closed-loop geothermal systems, which use the earth’s stable underground temperatures to heat and cool buildings. The RRC said approximately 1,400 shallow geothermal wells were completed in each of fiscal years 2024 and 2025. In the current fiscal year, that figure has more than doubled to 3,162 wells drilled across 39 sites statewide.
According to the commission, the increase has been supported by a new shallow geothermal rule that clarified regulatory responsibilities and streamlined permitting without increasing agency staffing or permitting fees.
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