- In Time for Holidays: More Gloom and Doom on Economy
- Turkey Day 101: How Well Do You Know Your Bird?
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- Holiday Guide to This Season's Smartphones
- Six Ways to Boost Your Income in a Big Way
- Buyers Look for Bargains at Luxury Condo Auction
- Ron Paul's Plan to Audit Fed a 'Serious Attack': Mishkin
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab Unit Falls Apart
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- Nov. 24: Unusual Volume Leaders
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- 3D's Tipping Point and Your Living Room
- On Twitter, Beware False Prophets
- My 2010 Home Price Outlook: UBS Analyst
- Why Are Options Piling into Dollar Tree?
- Novartis 'Cells' Its Flu Vaccine Technology
- Silicon Valley and Hollywood Now Fast Friends
- Markets Can Rise 5-10% in the Near-Term: Strategist
- Bankrupt FairPoint hires ad firms
- PR tourism chief takes heat for raise amid layoffs
- Mayor: Tesla to build cars in Downey, Calif.
- Sprint completes purchase of Virgin Mobile USA
- Kimberly-Clark to buy medical device maker I-Flow
- Wash. 2-year colleges report record enrollment
- GE Oil & Gas installs LNG terminal in Adriatic
- Playboy to outsource business functions
- Tenneco raises $187M in public offering
WASHINGTON - The Interior Department plans to make available 190 million acres of federal land in a dozen Western states for development of geothermal energy projects — a move that could produce enough clean electricity for 5 million homes.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Wednesday that under a leasing program, as many as 270 communities could benefit from direct use of geothermal energy, generated from intense heat deep beneath the Earth.
"Geothermal energy is replenished, is a renewable resource that generates electricity with minimal carbon emissions ...(and) reduces the need for conventional energy sources," said Kempthorne.
Kempthorne announced completion of an environmental review of the proposed leasing program which will include both federal forest and rangelands. The national parks such as Yellowstone, which is renowned for its geothermal geysers, remain off limits to leasing, he said.
The plan, expected to be made final in two months, calls for leasing land to project developers with the proceeds shared by local, state and federal governments.
The Interior Department said it will issue specific land areas that will be open for leasing. Each project will still have to undergo site-specific environmental reviews.
The broader environmental review for the overall leasing program calls for 118 million acres of land managed by Interior's Bureau of Land Management, and 79 million acres under the U.S. Forest Service, to be made available for potential geothermal development.
"These lands hold a huge energy potential," said Kempthorne.
He said it is estimated that the available leases could produce enough energy to generate 5,540 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5.5 million homes. Geothermal energy also can be used directly for heating buildings.
"Today both city and state buildings in Boise are heated and powered by some of Idaho's geothermal resources," Kempthorne, a former mayor of Boise and former Idaho governor, said in a conference call with reporters.
The government has had a geothermal leasing program under way for years. Since 2001, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 380 leases for geothermal projects. Currently 1,275 megawatts of electricity are being produced from geothermal resources on federal land.
But the new plan calls for making more federal land available for such projects. Kempthorne said the new leases could begin to produce significant amounts of power by 2015.
One problem may be availability of power transmission lines. A proposal that would have limited leases to land near existing electric transmission systems was rejected in favor of a broader leasing program.
The 12 states and number of new leasing areas in each state are: Alaska (3), Arizona (8), California (14), Colorado (10), Idaho (20), Montana (8), Nevada (8), New Mexico (9), Oregon (10), Utah (18), Washington (1), and Wyoming (13).
- Remember when auto shows were major events where new models could generate buzz?
- A diet high in fat and sugar might actually be good for your portfolio.
- A new McDonald's in Manhattan is the nation's first to sport a sleek, chic interior imported from stores in London and Paris.
- Italians were outraged by a minister's comments that lunchbreaks are bad for waistlines and the economy.
- Playboy will outsource its publishing operations in a bid to become profitable again.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.









