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Check out this fascinating map out by Google:

Imagine a renewable energy resource capable of producing more than 10 times the energy of the installed capacity of coal in the US. That’s the potential for Geothermal Energy in the United States, according to a recently completed 3-year project supported by Google.org to update the Geothermal Map of North America from 2004.

TalkingPointsMemo has more, too:

As part of that effort, the Mountain View, California-based company's philanthropic arm, "Google.org," on Tuesday published a new Google Earth map of the geothermal resources in the continental United States, created from data collected by the Geothermal Laboratory at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, which received a $489,521 grant from Google for the project.

The new map, an update of a running one that SMU scientists prepared in 2004 and 1992, estimates that the technical potential of geothermal in the U.S. is nearly 3 million megawatts (2,980,295), or 10 times the capacity of all the installed coal power plants in the country today.

SMU's sampled data from 35,000 oil, gas and water well sites across the country for the study, twice as many sites as their last study, used to create the 2004 map. Many of the new data points were located in the eastern portion of the United States, where geothermal resources were thought to be far less viable than the new study has found. The most obvious geothermal resources, hot springs in the Yellowstone area, have been exploited as baths and for hot water heating systems since the first settlers moved West in the 1800's.

Read up on the history of geothermal energy in the U.S., then start talking about this massive energy source literally located right under our feet!

That would be good news except that the coal industry has a stranglehold on politics in the coal producing states. I am in Kentucky and I will tell you that if you are in any way threatening big coal companies then you are pushed out. No politician can win any election here if you are against coal.

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