USA, California:

It’s Our Responsibility to Protect Geothermal Energy, a Clean Energy Resource (Lake County News)

Congressman Mike Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Congressman Mike Thompson
(D-St. Helena) 

Geothermal is one of California’s greatest resources – a natural bounty of renewable energy in our own backyard. It is a renewable resource that has been developed and sustained for half a century.

We need to make sure our regulatory system and contracting practices do not put this valuable and unique resource at risk.

Miles beneath the surface of Lake and Sonoma counties lies what is known as The Geysers, the world’s largest geothermal resource. Continuously producing clean, reliable power around the clock The Geysers provides enough energy to power a city the size of San Francisco.

Renewables including geothermal, solar, wind and biomass are expected to comprise 33 percent of our energy use by 2020. As state legislators contemplate increasing this requirement and seek to further reduce carbon emissions to battle climate change there is no doubt we will need existing and new renewable power, like The Geysers.

While geothermal is essential and complimentary to the overall California energy mix, geothermal development has not kept pace with other renewable resources. Worse, energy agencies predict that utilities’ contracting of geothermal energy will drop significantly within the next few years.

So what’s going on here? Read More......