Geothermal Can Play a Significant Role in State Carbon Reduction Plans (altenergymag.com - News Release)
The U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) urges states to take advantage of the carbon emission reduction available through expanding geothermal power portfolios. Doing so makes sense in light of the US EPA's proposed regulations for existing power plants that require states to substantially reduce carbon emissions. The regulations proposed would give states significant leeway in designing plans to reduce their emissions contributing to global warming, including adopting or strengthening policies to expand clean energy production, like geothermal power.
As a baseload source of clean energy, geothermal power is already helping to reduce the power system's carbon emissions. The U.S. GEA estimates that current geothermal energy production in the U.S. offsets about 14 million metric tons of CO2 from coal or 5 million metric tons from natural gas per year. The developing projects identified by GEA in April 2014, with estimated planned capacity additions of 978 MW, could help 11 states displace an additional 7 million metric tons of CO2 per year from coal or 2.3 million metric tons of CO2 per year from natural gas.
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