Interesting article on proposed energy policies.

[Anomalocaris]

@Chuck, what do think of the practicality of geothermal energy?

Both the physical feasibility and the economic practicality of geothermal energy depends on the availability of appropriate geological condition. There are far fewer areas where one could build economic geothermal power plants than there are where one might build a practical wind or solar farm. So in the US, large scale geothermal physical potential (not necessarily economic potential) exists mainly in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Wyoming, parts of Montana, parts of Texas.

Also, we appear to not be very good at predicting what the sustainable level of output from geothermal field is. The notion one could keep drilling new wells in the same geothermal field to get more geothermal energy does not appear to have been born out by experiences with some early large scale Geothermal power plants. The productivity of some large geothermal fields appear to decline much faster than what had been expected when the fields were first developed, and new wells drilled in the old field produce less and less steam for the same cost. So some geothermal plants are already running at less 50% designed capacity just 20 years after coming online.

One should not count on Geothermal energy to do a very large part in going green.