Did you know that the US spends between $30 and $50 billion every month on foreign oil? I find that number to be huge and think that we need to reduce that amount if we want to remain competitive, independent, and environmentally friendly. It doesn’t make long-term economic sense to spend so many of our resources on an environmentally toxic substance that also needs to be transported halfway around the world. If the goals are energy independence, sustainability and local jobs, some say the US should drill for domestic oil and other fossil fuel resources that are within US borders.
In a recent interview I had with T.Boone Pickens, he mentioned that if we switched large trucks to natural gas instead of diesel we could reduce foreign oil dependency by 50 percent. I agree with him, but also think we should focus more on geothermal energy and call for a “drill, baby, drill” campaign that all political parties can endorse as it will save money and help our environment, while creating domestic jobs that would be difficult to outsource to other countries. To accomplish this requires a slight change in policy to remove some unfair barriers, but let me first explain the benefits of geothermal.
Geothermal Quick Facts
Geothermal energy is the only commercially available renewable energy that offers 100 percent uptime reliability. It uses extremely simple technology, has low operating maintenance costs and results in far fewer emissions by using the earth’s thermal energy instead of fossil fuels. Geothermal energy represents a broad spectrum of applications, including utility scale power as well as solutions for buildings and homes.
For example, utilities use hot spots in the earth’s crust to make steam and then drive a turbine to make electricity. In addition to using our US-based resources to make kWhs, utility-scale geothermal steam generation plants are also eligible for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), just like solar and wind energy projects.