North of the Hot Zone

Bill Virgin, columnist at the Seattle PI included geothermal in his latest article where he looked at geology and tax policy in Washington State on oil and gas. He broaches geothermal at the end while interviewing State Geologist Ron Teissere.

How about geothermal to produce electricity? Think of Mount St. Helens as the world’s largest geothermal demonstration project.

"That’s where we’re seeing a lot of inquiry," Teissere says. "I think there are a lot of people on the landscape looking around."

But he adds, "The places where you’re likely to drill into steam are in the national parks. In the national forests there might be some lesser opportunities."

Geothermal doesn’t need geyserlike flumes of steam to provide useful energy. "There are high-temperature rocks at depth in Eastern Washington," he says. Water can be injected into those rock formations, heated and brought to the surface….

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