Reid says rurals to get geothermal revenue

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says the geothermal leasing revenues stripped from rural counties by earlier legislation will be restored.

He said the provision is included in the resolution approved to fund operation of the federal government through March 4.

"Nevada's rural counties rely on this funding for essential services such as public safety, transportation and education," he said. "By restoring these full payments, we're putting this money back into the community where it belongs to create jobs and strengthen our local economies."

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the geothermal revenues in Nevada is Churchill County.

Those revenues had been shared with the counties since 2005 but a section in the 2010 Interior Depart-

ment Appropriations Act took away the county share of the leasing revenues. When that was discovered earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said simply that the counties - especially those with high percentages of non-taxable federal land in their borders - had been robbed.

Reid inserted the provision restoring that funding in the budget resolution.