Steam from Yellowstone Caldera Could Power 20 Million Homes
A guy writing a guest commentary in the Wall Street Journal believes he has an easy solution for solving America’s energy woes. Steam from the Yellowstone caldera. I’ll post his link here, but if you don’t subscribe it may not allow you to view the piece. So, I’ll post an older link from another publication, which provides some of the same arguments.
The writer makes another point, poking a hole into the caldera would relieve pressure. Much like the hole in your tea kettle, it’s a safety valve.
Here’s the claim from the Journal writer: Yellowstone steam could power 20 million American homes! Neighboring states would be the beneficiaries and possibly even some western Canadian provinces. Idaho would be a natural for using steam, due to proximity.
The writer makes another point, poking a hole into the caldera would relieve pressure. Much like the hole in your tea kettle, it’s a safety valve.
In other words, it could delay an eruption, which would be really, really bad for life on the planet, and especially nasty for much of North America. Scientific modeling suggests that as far east as New York City there could be three inches of ash. People there would have slow and miserable deaths. We don’t have any such worries about lingering pain. The good news is, we’d be vaporized instantly. The bad news is we’d be vaporized instantly!
Steam would be a much more reliable source of energy than wind and solar. Steam doesn’t take a day off. While the wind does blow in the Mountain West (tell me about it) it’s not a constant. Solar has challenges on overcast days and when the sun goes down.
The Yellowstone proposal is sound, but as a caller to my radio show made apparent, permitting and environmentalist complaints would mean a 30-year wait for any construction.
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