Recovery Act stimulus funding for a technology that will make geothermal power available in every state is being invested in Senator Inhofe’s Oklahoma by the Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Program, in a $3 million R&D program to increase the volume of hot rock from which heat can be extracted. … [continued]
The Obama administration is moving ahead with not one, but three EPA rules that will start to reduce our use of coal, (by far the worst emitter of greenhouse gases in the nation) to move the nation towards a cleaner, safer, healthier energy future, despite misuse of the Senate filibuster by Republicans who are paid to support coal.
Every barrel of oil extracted in the US also produces ten barrels of hot fluids in addition to the oil. Why not use that potential energy in the waste heat?
Rather than discard that “geothermal” resource created by the process of oil extraction, the DOE is going to show the traditional energy industry how to tap into those waste fluids to power equipment at the site. If generally applied by the industry, this would help reduce the high carbon cost of oil production in the US.
