New Mexico, Colorado exploring additional geothermal potential, whither South Dakota?

At least as early as 2011 the Four Corners region was seen as a geothermal powerhouse where Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories assembled plans for energy development. 

In 2021 the Bureau of Land Management sold a geothermal lease in Hidalgo County, New Mexico despite a 2016 blowout near a $43 million geothermal electricity plant erected by Cyrq Energy in 2013 when Republican Susana Martinez was governor. Cyrq Energy has four working geothermal projects including Lightning Dock Geothermal Power Plant near Animas. It's a 15.3 MW binary geothermal plant with two production wells and 7 injection wells that sells power to Public Service of New Mexico (PNM) with firm baseload power. In December, 2024 the BLM sold geothermal leases on seven parcels totaling 4,468 acres in Doña Ana County.

Using an enhanced geothermal system (EGS) at its Project Red site in northern Nevada Google-financed Fervo Energy completed a full-scale, 30-day well test able to generate 3.5 megawatts or enough electricity to power over 2,600 homes full time. Fervo employs a hydro-shearing process and believes it can deliver about 400 megawatts by 2028 or enough electricity to power 300,000 homes at once from half a dozen other sites across the western US. In 2024 the BLM approved the Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project in Beaver County, Utah which has the potential to generate up to 2 gigawatts (GW) or enough energy to supply over 2 million homes.

Colorado could tap orphaned oil and gas wells to supply hot water for electricity generation especially now that the state is falling behind on its own self-imposed emissions-reducing mandates.

Colorado is interested in geothermal as a way to supplement other renewable energy resources, as the state looks to end coal production by 2030 and reach 100% net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. [What is geothermal energy, and how are states in the Mountain West promoting and regulating it?]

In South Dakota’s Black Hills the US Department of Energy, New Mexico's Sandia Labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, South Dakota School of Mines and others are collaborating on the potential for generating electricity using EGS but Hot Springs, Belle Fourche, Philip and Midland also enjoy untapped geothermal resources.

Former Rapid City cleric blasts administration over raids

Sanctuary or the right of refuge is the ancient implied inviolate protection of the oppressed through ecclesiastical immunity where refugees and fugitives are afforded adequate time for penitence free of persecution from political and legal interdiction adopted by the Roman Church centuries ago.

Born in Omaha, Blase Cupich was raised in a catholic household, attended a Benedictine elementary school, a diocese high school then graduated the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. When this interested party lived in Rapid City in 1998 he was made bishop by John Paul II and was consecrated in a ceremony at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. In 2004 when some in the cult wanted to ban Senator Tom Daschle from the Eucharist because of his defense of reproductive rights Cupich called it "cherry picking" and in 2008 he called racism a sin and was named Cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016.

In 2018 Cupich's predecessor was accused of covering up sex crimes in Pennsylvania after a grand jury found the church hid predator priests from prosecution.

Today, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago is pushing back on plans by the Trump Organization to raid churches and schools.

“The Catholic community stands with the people of Chicago in speaking out in defence of the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. Similarly, if the reports are true, it should be known that we would oppose any plan that includes a mass deportation of U.S. citizens born of undocumented parents,” he said. “For members of faith communities, the threatened mass deportations also leave us with the searing question, ‘What is God telling us in this moment?’” he asked, calling for a collective examination of conscience. [Cardinal Cupich: We oppose any immigrant mass deportation plan]

Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and General Michael Flynn are modern Falangists financed by the John Birch Society. Many catholic schools are in the Hillsdale bubble because the curriculum ignores the church’s role in the Native American Genocide and Opus Dei is a cult of Fascists.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a separate statement also criticized some of Trump's wide-reaching executive orders on immigration. ['Look in the mirror': Vance knocks Catholic organization for criticizing Trump immigration policy]

In 2023 Pope Francis sacked an apostate who endorsed the phrase: "You cannot be Catholic and be a Democrat" and today Francis calls the deportation scheme a "disgrace." 

The full Cupich statement is linked here.

Grassland fire danger grips South Dakota again

The grassland fire danger index will reach the very high category Monday and Tuesday for much of South Dakota where Republicans don't believe humans are responsible for desertifying the planet but push watersheds to the brink anyway.

Haaland clearly the frontrunner for NM governor

My home state of South Dakota will suffer brain drain for years to come and New Mexico has its own set of challenges but living where the Republican Party is virtually meaningless and Democrats rule is well worth it. 

In 2012 Martin Heinrich defeated Republican Heather Wilson, his predecessor in Congress and today thanks to efforts led by Senator Heinrich bison have become America's National Mammal, Amtrak's Southwest Chief is still chugging, the Gila River is no longer in danger of being diverted, Chaco Culture National Historical Park enjoys greater protection from the extractive industry and he is leading the reform of the Mining Law of 1872. He is a smart, telegenic, pragmatic statesman in a state where a Democrat can easily keep the seat.

Now, after securing the release of Leonard Peltier from federal prison former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is refocusing her attention home in New Mexico and Sen. Heinrich is staying to fight the Orange Julius in DC. 

His decision not to launch a gubernatorial campaign could clear the way for former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to be the highest-profile candidate in the race. She attended the opening day of the 60-day New Mexico legislative session in Santa Fe this week and received a loud ovation from Democratic lawmakers when introduced in the House chamber. [Martin Heinrich rules out run for governor, citing high stakes in Washington]

The Earth haters will likely nominate Nella Domenici who lost bigly to Sen. Heinrich.

In 2012 I organized for @Barack Obama in Indian Country. Our mission was simple, leave no voice unheard. Today that mission has never been more important.

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— Deb Haaland (@debhaalandnm.bsky.social) January 24, 2025 at 8:19 PM

Wyoming Republicans will likely doom another Indigenous historic site

Exploiting the gap between the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets during the Wisconsin Glacial Episode Clovis people came down the Little Missouri River and were likely the first humans to see the Missouri Buttes and Devils Tower. The divide between the Little Missouri and the Belle Fourche drainages is not very wide: less than a mile just west of the Missouri Buttes. At that location it's not difficult to visualize how the people migrating into the region at least 12,000 years ago seeking shelter and food sources found their way into lands free of glaciation. 

There are at least 23 prehistoric sites near Devils Tower National Monument, some of which are archaeological treasures eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. So in 2023 during a review of its resource management plan (RMP) the Newcastle, Wyoming office of the US Bureau of Land Management identified the Little Missouri Antelope Trap as an area of critical concern or ACEC. 

Ogden Driskill is an Earth hating Wyoming legislator running cattle near Mahto Tipila in the Belle Fourche River watershed. But even Driskill isn't white enough for some Trumpers and faced a solid write-in campaign from a former chair of the Crook County Republican Party. Crook County is home to the Little Missouri Antelope Trap. 

Since at least 2021 Wyoming's two Earth hating US Senators have introduced legislation that would cancel Indigenous culture at America's first national monument so the preservation of another ACEC is likely doomed especially now that a US president who hates Native Americans is slashing history.

"In the interior, there are a series of wooden juniper drive-line structures and there is a physical antelope trap where Native American Indian tribes came to hunt for significant periods of time across the land-scape," says Chad Krause, Field Manager for the BLM's Newcastle Field Office. There's only one existing ACEC in the management area overseen by the Newcastle Field Office. The cur-rent plan, which was approved in 1999, includes Whoopup Canyon east of Newcastle. "It has petroglyphs that are around 11,000 years old," Krause says. The proposed area has public access via the Little Missouri Road and is a popular hunting area for – unsurprisingly – antelope. What made this site stand out, he says, was partly the information gathered from the tribes and partly the manageability of the location. [BLM proposes new protected area]

Learn more at Salon.

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