In Fort Worth, 4,000 new wells are in the ground but weren't drilled for oil. Instead, they're tapping underground water for a massive, Texas-sized high school heated and cooled by geothermal energy. In Framingham, Massachusetts, Eversource, New England's largest natural gas utility, built a brand new district geothermal system for thirty-seven residences and commercial buildings, a historic milestone in the transition of fossil fuel companies to clean energy. Geothermal is on the rise, but its history in America dates back to the late 1800s. Before the Wright Brothers invented flight or the first Ford Model-T rolled off an assembly line, the people of Boise, Idaho, enjoyed the cost-effective comfort of heating their homes with geothermal energy. Today, Boise's system provides space and water heating to over 100 buildings in its downtown core and performs other supercool feats, like melting snow off sidewalks. Tina Riley spent two decades in the oil and gas industry working for ExxonMobil as a geologist. She now applies those highly transferable skills to run Boise's geothermal energy system, the most extensive system in America. She joins host Josh Dorfman on the show.
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Guest:
Tina Riley
Climate Initiative:
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