Letter of the Day: Non-renewable power

Non-renewable power

EDITOR: Many articles in The Press Democrat and elsewhere (e.g., concerning Sonoma County's proposed power plan) refer to geothermal power as "renewable." Geothermal power is generated by withdrawing the stored thermal energy of our planet's hot and gradually cooling interior. This is one of our least renewable options - far less renewable than oil, which at least is regenerated over millions of years. Geothermal energy will never regenerate, ever, ever. Tapping into it will only speed the cooling of the Earth's core and hasten the resulting shrinkage and cracking of the Earth's crust (e.g., earthquakes and other unpredictable consequences).

This and many other common misconceptions about energy production reflect poorly on our education system, which produces environmental "experts" without a basic knowledge of physics and thermodynamics.

JOHN BRABYN

Bodega