Major Geothermal Initiative Announced Save Email Print
Posted: 11:25 AM Oct 22, 2008
Last Updated: 11:25 AM Oct 22, 2008
A Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced Wednesday a plan to make more than 190 million acres of Federal land in 12 western states available for development of geothermal energy resources, an initiative that could increase electric generation capacity from geothermal resources ten times over.
“Geothermal energy will play a key role in powering America’s energy future,” Kempthorne said, “and 90 percent of our nation’s geothermal resources are found on Federal lands. Facilitating their leasing and development under environmentally sound regulations is crucial to supplying the secure, clean energy American homes and businesses need.”
Under the development scenario outlined in the plan – known as the Final Geothermal Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement – the initiative could produce 5,540 megawatts of new electric generation capacity from geothermal resources by 2015. That’s enough to meet the power needs of 5.5 million homes. The plan also estimates an additional 6,600 megawatts by 2025 for a total of 12,100 megawatts – enough to power more than 12 million homes.
When put into action by a Record of Decision, the plan would identify about 118 million acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands and 79 million acres of National Forest System lands for future geothermal leasing.
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