Natural gas burns cleaner than coal, but West Virginia can do better when it comes to energy production. Last October, researchers at Southern Methodist University, funded by Google, announced that West Virginia sits atop the major geothermal hot spot of the East Coast. Take a look at the map to see how special that really is. This hot spot is no small potatoes– if tapped it would be a power supply equivalent to the total amount of all current energy production in the state (which is largely coal-fired). Read more on the WV Geologic Survey’s website…
This month, further SMU research confirmed and verified geothermal resources across the US which are capable of supporting large-scale commercial energy production. West Virginia’s hotspot remains of strong interest. Keep this in mind when you hear talk of energy independence.
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“Extracting geothermal energy can have adverse environmental impacts, particularly air pollution from radon gas, hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide emissions. Generally, the carbon dioxide emissions of a geothermal power plant are only five percent of the emissions from equivalent fossil fuel power plants. Using geothermal resources can also create substantial thermal pollution from waste heat.”
http://www.unep.fr/energy/information/publications/factsheets/pdf/geothermal.PDF
All energy transformations providing energy for mankind’s use will have some negative environmental consequences. Those associated with wind and wave power generation are thermodynamic:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028063.300-wind-and-wave-energies-are-not-renewable-after-all.html