Feds announce land for geothermal power

New plan opens almost all of Oregon's public land to energy drilling.

Deep within the earth near the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Central Oregon a drilling operation is tapping into the earth's hot interior.

It’s searching for geothermal energy that could one day power thousands of homes.

It's a renewable energy source that PGE says is much more reliable than wind or even solar.

“Geothermal could be what we call a base load resource, something that’s available essentially all the time whenever our customers need it,” explained Steve Corson, a spokesperson for PGE.

And Corson is looking forward to the future.

This week the Interior Department announced plans to make nearly 200 million acres of federal land available for development of geothermal energy projects.

Around 18 million acres would be located here in the Pacific Northwest.

“We anticipate almost quintupling the amount of geothermal resources over the next several years,” said Michael Campbell with the Bureau of Land Management. The federal plan designated 10 regions across Oregon and Washington as potential geothermal leasing areas.

“It says there is going to be a certain portion that will be available for leasing and a certain portion that will be closed to leasing,” explained Campbell.

The off-limit areas would include all federally protected lands.

But some worry that simply opens the doors for drilling on yet-to-be protected lands, such as areas near Mount Hood which the federal plan specifically identifies as potential geothermal drilling sites.

“There are millions of acres of amazing places that haven't been protected yet that could face development and the impacts from development due to this plan,” stated Sean Stevens of Oregon Wild.

Another concern: How to get the power from any future geo-thermal plants to the communities that need it. That would entail building new transmission lines.

It's a heated debate that will likely only grow hotter as the need for alternative energy increases, and the earth's geothermal power is explored.