BOISE, Idaho — A U.S. Department of Energy report this spring made a bold prediction.
The nascent geothermal industry, it said, has a ready workforce of 300,000 engineers, hydrologists, drillers and power plant operators ready to tap right here in this country.
All that’s needed are more early adopters like Tina Riley who are willing to move over from the oil and gas sector. After two decades as a geologist with ExxonMobil in Houston, she recently moved to Idaho to help run Boise’s geothermal utility.
“Boise is really well known for geothermal and I wanted to become part of it,” Riley says. “I really wanted to be part of