Geothermal

Geot­her­mal pow­er is a great idea as an effi­cien­cy mea­sure when closed loops of pip­ing are used to pre­heat or pre­cool air or water. This can be done any­where and helps min­i­mize the use of elec­tric­i­ty or heat­ing fuels for heat­ing and cool­ing of build­ing tem­per­a­tures or the heat­ing of water.

How­ev­er, when geot­her­mal is used to pro­duce elec­tric­i­ty (which, in the U.S., is only pos­si­ble in west­ern states), these larg­er sys­tems are all “open-loop” types that suck water out of the ground. These can actu­al­ly deplete the resource. Open loop geot­her­mal is not clean, as com­mu­ni­ties are exposed to emis­sions of hydro­gen sul­fide, ammo­nia, car­bon diox­ide and radon. Also, there are notable envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice issues around geot­her­mal pro­pos­als in Hawaii and in parts of Cal­i­for­nia, where com­mu­ni­ties of col­or have been threat­ened with dam­ag­ing geot­her­mal development.

Geot­her­mal in Hawaii:

• Puna Pono Alliance: Hawai­i’s Big Island res­i­dent fight­ing geot­her­mal devel­op­ment (see the exten­sive 2013 gov­ern­ment-com­mis­sioned report on health and safe­ty issues relat­ing to Puna Geot­her­mal Ventures)
• Wao Kele O Puna is a low­land rain­for­est and sacred site in Hawaii that for years was threat­ened by geot­her­mal drilling. Pro­test­ers suc­cess­ful­ly pro­tect­ed this site from the drilling.
• Puna Geot­her­mal fined for clean air violations
• For­mer Employ­ees Sue Ormat: Geot­her­mal Firm Lied to Get Stim­u­lus Cash
• Coali­tion Sues State To Stop Hawaii Geot­her­mal Project
• Health Con­sul­ta­tion: Puna Geot­her­mal Ven­ture (U.S. Agency for Tox­ic Sub­stances and Dis­ease Registry)
  
  

  “Dur­ing oper­a­tion of the geot­her­mal wells, gas­es may be released to the atmos­phere. These gas­es include car­bon diox­ide, hydro­gen sul­fide, ammo­nia, and trace amounts of radon-222. The emis­sion of hydro­gen sul­fide gas is con­sid­ered to be the most impor­tant pub­lic health prob­lem relat­ed to the oper­a­tion of these geot­her­mal wells. Since hydro­gen sul­fide is heav­ier than air, it can accu­mu­late in low-lying areas dur­ing tem­per­a­ture inver­sions or when pre­vail­ing trade winds are calm.”

  
  

Geot­her­mal in California:

• In Siskiy­ou Coun­ty, CA geot­her­mal has been pro­posed in an area where Native Amer­i­cans would lose their sacred med­i­c­i­nal heal­ing lands. This site is known as Med­i­cine Lake. 
  • Med­i­cine Lake Cit­i­zens for Qual­i­ty Envi­ron­ment has been active in work­ing to pro­tect this site.
  • Mount Shas­ta Biore­gion­al Ecol­o­gy Cen­ter is anoth­er ally work­ing to pro­tect the Med­i­cine Lake site in addi­tion to anoth­er pris­tine site in Cal­i­for­nia — Mount Shasta
• Oppo­si­tion to Geot­her­mal in Inyo Coun­ty, CA
  
  
  
  • Clash­ing shades of green in Inyo Coun­ty (LA Times, 11/23/2007). This piece calls atten­tion to the heavy water use that geot­her­mal tech­nol­o­gy requires. In loca­tions such as Inyo Coun­ty, CA, such exces­sive water use can have a seri­ous effect on avail­able water in the region.
• Impe­r­i­al Coun­ty, CA: Cit­i­zens group fight­ing back against 4–6 geot­her­mal plants that were pro­posed for com­mu­ni­ties of col­or in the coun­ty in 2007

Geot­her­mal in Nevada:

• Still­wa­ter res­i­dents drink­ing water wells affect­ed by near­by geot­her­mal operation

Geot­her­mal oppo­si­tion around the world

Geot­her­mal Resource Maps

The good kind of geot­her­mal… the kind you can use any­where: Geot­her­mal heat pumps