More Power!

Fans of the old Tim Allen sit-com "Home Improvement" will remember his default solution to just about any problem: "MORE POWER!"

Well, sceintists are taking that mantra to heart in their quest to tap new energy reserves. The USA is aldready second only to Iceland in the use of geothermal energy, but now we are looking to up the ante by tapping into.... volcanoes.

Experts are predicting new geothermal plants in the Pacific Northwest that tap into the awesome enrgy potential that lies beneath the Cascade Mountain Range.

According to the write-up in the Charlotte Observer:

A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that the amount of geothermal power that could be recovered from deep drilling would represent almost 3,000 times the amount of energy currently consumed in the United States.

Last year's Energy Department report said the Cascades contained "potentially significant" geothermal resources, but it cautioned that the effort to tap these resources, including drilling miles into volcanoes to tap "supercritical fluids," won't be easy.

Northwest looks to volcanoes for energy [Charlotte Observer]