The United States Energy Department, concerned about earthquake risk, will impose new safeguards on geothermal energy projects that drill deep into the Earth’s crust.

The new policy is being instituted after a project in California that used the new technology was shut down by technical problems and encountered community opposition, federal documents indicate.

The project, by Seattle-based AltaRock Energy, would have fractured bedrock and extracted heat by digging more than two miles beneath the surface at a spot called the Geysers, about 100 miles north of San Francisco. The company ran into serious problems with its drilling and faced accusations from scientists and local residents that it had not been forthcoming enough about the earthquake risk. AltaRock denied those accusations.

The documents, provided to The New York Times by the Energy Department, indicate that the Geysers project has run through $6 million in federal financing in several unsuccessful efforts to drill to the necessary depth. As a result, the Energy Department “considers the project in the Geysers to be concluded,” according to a letter addressed to Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat and chairman of the House committee on Energy and Commerce.