In continuing to respond to calls from Americans to increase domestic production of clean energy, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has introduced bipartisan legislation to further advance geothermal technologies. The National Geothermal Initiative Act of 2007 (S.1543) already has seven co-sponsors: Reid, Murkowski, Stevens, Salazar, Tester, Snowe and Hatch.
Drilling wells to tap geothermal energy (heat from the earth) is a process similar to producing oil. However, geothermal energy is a clean, reliable, domestically-abundant and renewable resource. Geothermal sources range from shallow, hot water springs to rock several miles beneath the earth’s surface that can be engineered to produce energy for a variety of uses, including as an energy source for baseload electricity generation.
Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said, “It is critical, with our nation’s ever-increasing energy needs, that new sources of clean energy be developed and utilized. S.1543 does just that by creating and implementing new research and development programs for a clean, renewable energy source with great potential.”
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