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Harry Reid Pushes Nevada As "Saudi Arabia of Geothermal Energy"

Posted by timothy on from the flogging-sand dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Of all the 'mainstream' forms of renewable energy, it seems that geothermal power is always left in the shadows compared to solar and wind power. However, that looks set to change with news that the US Department of Energy will fund geothermal projects in northwestern Nevada and southeast Oregon. With funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the DOE has stated a 'conditional commitment' to provide a partial guarantee for a rumored $98.5 million loan to the Nevada Geothermal Power Company (NGP). According to US Senator Harry Reid, 'Northern Nevada is the Saudi Arabia of geothermal energy.'"

5 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. According to US Senator Harry Reid ... by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... that kind of kills it for me. Any politician making such proclamations must be taken with a pound of salt. Wasn't Nevada also proclaimed as the dumping ground for nuclear and toxic waste?

    1. Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ... by e9th · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, is in danger of losing his long-held seat. He needs the pork badly, and the administration is more than willing to help him out.

    2. Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ... by iluvcapra · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The senators would be appointed by their state legislatures in a manner that's up to them -- in the 19th century the state legislature would hold a vote, or the governor would make an appointment subject to state senate advice and consent, or whatever.

      The problem with this approach was that it made senate seats a form of patronage for governors and state political machines, and while the people appointed might have been worthy there was zero democratic accountability, and senate appointment was a notoriously corrupt institution -- take the recent Rod Blagojevich nonsense and imagine it were the norm. Eliminating the direct election of senators in order to control "pork" or earmarks, which are themselves only about 2% of the federal budget, and are at least as big a problem with House members, is a pretty extreme solution.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    3. Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ... by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Washoe County Commission in 1992 rejected fluoridation, and Angle said the Legislature should not approve fluoridation in her county without a vote of its people.

      All that indicates to me is that she supports checks and balances between state and local governance, not that she opposes fluoridation.

      Her website itself plainly states she wants to eliminate the department of education and social security.

      Does that mean she's philosophically opposed to education and safety nets for the poor, or -- more likely, I think -- does it mean she supports decentralization of government (i.e., where the state or local governments would control education and provide social safety nets)?

      I don't know anything about this person beyond what I've just read in this thread (and not being a citizen of Nevada, I don't particularly care), but she sounds merely like a supporter of [federalism|checks and balances|states' rights], not a crackpot.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  2. The problem with geothermal by overshoot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is that unlike wind and solar, it's always on. This makes it much more difficult to explain why it won't meet baseline demand.

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."