Renewable geothermal energy holds promise, but it gets little attention

[K.J]

Here's another reason why companies such as TXU should get far less money and attention than they do. We are sitting on literally thousands of megawatts worth of energy and yet our country still builds more coal powered energy plants.

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Renewable geothermal energy holds promise, but it gets little attention
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 02/11/2007 01:10:08 AM MST

WASHINGTON - Geologists believe Utah sits on one of the prime reservoirs of geothermal energy in the United States, an energy resource that is clean, renewable, reliable, and, to date, almost entirely untapped.

And, in a time when President Bush has called in his State of the Union Address for an aggressive expansion of renewable energy, geothermal enjoys little support from the administration.

Last week, as other renewable energy sources were the focus of major new initiatives, Bush once again proposed eliminating the Energy Department's office focused on expanding geothermal energy, just as it had last year before Western senators rallied to protect the program.

Just when the industry looks headed toward a breakthrough, says Karl Galwell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association, a political move jerks the opportunity away.

"I guess that makes us the Charlie Brown of renewable energy," he says.
Utah has always had abundant geothermal resources. The American Indians who lived in the region would camp along the thermal springs in the winter, and later, Mormon pioneers settled nearby. Railroads used the hot springs as a tourist attraction.

The state's geology - active fault lines and geologically recent volcanic activity - forges fractures that allow heat to seep to the surface, creating a prime zone for geothermal development that stretches from the Wasatch Mountains west to California, said Robert Blackett of the Utah Geological Survey.

The three Western neighbors - Utah, Nevada and California - are the only three states in the continental United States with operating geothermal power plants.