Nevada

While the U.S. Air Force remains the largest energy user in the federal government, many Air Force bases are making significant strides to generate renewable energy on-site.  

U.S. Geothermal Inc. (TSE:GTH) has received a special permit from the Washoe Planning Commission, allowing it to begin work on its San Emidio Geothermal Project in northern Nevada.

With unemployment on everyone’s mind, the Obama administration has been touting “green” projects as a source of new jobs. Now the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has confirmed that some government programs can do just that -- create jobs.

Geothermal is often an energy-efficiency wallflower compared with the more popular solar and wind technologies. Although it offers advantages over other technologies, geothermal projects are slow to get going and expensive.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to introduce and energy bill today that up until last week contained measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - like a cap-and-trade mechanism and a Renewable Energy Standard.

Well, well, well.  Once again, here we stand on the eve of another journey.

But first a little prelude, if I may.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is getting a lot of press these days.  It is more efficient and powerful than ordinary photovoltaic solar energy – plus the technology is really cool.

The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) has released figures estimating that the geothermal industry could be worth up to $22.5 billion over the next 30 years in the US state of Nevada.

“To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has rocked the small towns that thrive in southern Plaquemines Parish, La. Located in the southernmost tip of the state, and now surrounded by oil-filled bays, Venice and its neighboring towns, Boothville and Buras, have been described by many as "ground zero" of the disaster.