| Abstract |
There is little public advocacy for geothermal energy in the United States outside of the geothermal community itself. Yet, broad based advocacy is needed to provide impetus for a nourishing economic, regulatory and R&D environment. If such an environment could be created, the prosperity of the geothermal industry would improve and positive environmental effects compared to most other energy sources would be realized. We need an organized, sustained effort to provide information and education to all segments of our society, including market makers and end user, administrators, legislators, regulators, educators, special interest groups and the public. This effort could be provided by an organization of three main components; (1) a network to gather and disseminate pertinent information on marketing educational and lobbying opportunities to action committees, (2) a repository of current information on geothermal energy, and (3) action committees each responsible for certain parts of the total marketing, education and lobbying task. In this paper I suggest a mechanism for forming such an organization and making it work. I propose an informal organization staffed largely by volunteered labor in which no one person would have to devote more than a few percent of his or her work time. |