This piece from Nevada Assemblywoman Jill Dickman first ran in the Elko Daily Free Press on March 31, 2025 and can be accessed here.
Jill Dickman: In race for energy dominance, geothermal a sleeping giant
Less than 20 years ago, the United States was dangerously dependent on foreign sources of oil and natural gas. Today, we are truly energy independent — and with the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, America is poised to enter a new age of global energy dominance.
Energy dominance will require tapping into a wide range of energy sources, including oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric dams and renewables like wind and solar. But there is another source, largely concentrated in Western states like Nevada, that will also support long-term energy dominance: Advanced geothermal power.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright recently emphasized the importance of advanced geothermal when he said, “The U.S. energy strategy must include next-generation geothermal energy if we are to achieve President Trump's goal of energy abundance and security."
Geothermal energy, derived from the Earth's internal heat, offers a clean, reliable and consistent source of electricity. Not only that, geothermal wells leverage all of the existing expertise and technologies in the oil and gas industry, providing workers in the oil patch even more ways to apply their skills and make a good living for themselves and their families.
Geothermal plants can generate electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This baseload power is crucial for grid stability and reliability, especially as the growth of data centers and the reshoring of manufacturing plants drives up the nation’s demand for electricity.
The existing geothermal industry often relies on relatively shallow sources of hot water and steam in active seismic zones in Nevada and California. While these hydrothermal systems are valuable, advanced geothermal systems are opening vast new possibilities across much wider areas of Nevada and the western United States.
Advanced geothermal technologies can access heat resources in areas previously considered unsuitable for geothermal development. They involve injecting water into hot, dry rock formations deep underground, fracturing the rock to create permeability, and then extracting the heated water to generate electricity.
This expands the geographic potential of geothermal significantly. According to CRES, a think tank focused on energy policy, the U.S. has the potential to build up to 90.5 gigawatts of advanced geothermal plants by 2050.
For scale, 90 gigawatts is only slightly smaller than the current U.S. fleet of nuclear power plants. This could grow geothermal’s share of U.S. electricity generation from less than 1% today to roughly 20%.
But there’s a catch. The vast majority of geothermal resources in the American West are located on federal lands, where permitting has traditionally been slow and subject to constant court challenges.
Part of the problem is that regulatory agencies don’t treat geothermal the same as other energy resources. In fact, it’s easier to get oil and gas production permitting on federal lands than geothermal.
This doesn’t make any sense. Fortunately, the Trump administration can easily include geothermal in its wider agenda of regulatory reform and clear the way for advanced geothermal developers to bring billions of dollars of investment and many thousands of jobs to the communities of the American West.
The geothermal industry would also benefit from maintaining existing technology-neutral tax incentives like the 45Y and 48E credits which have spurred private investment and the prioritization of research and development funding to reduce drilling costs and advance next-generation geothermal technologies.
The time for advanced geothermal energy is now. As our energy demands grow and the need for reliable and secure energy becomes more urgent, geothermal energy offers a compelling solution.
Western states — with their abundant resources, innovative spirit, and strong oil and gas workforces — are ready to lead the way and provide even more support for President Trump’s energy dominance agenda.
Geothermal energy is a giant that’s been asleep for far too long. With help from the Trump administration and Congress, now we can wake it up.
Jill Dickman represents Washoe County's District 31 in the Nevada Assembly. A Republican, she wrote this for the Elko Daily Free Press.