Drill, baby, drill — in Brooklyn: Let’s tap the energy bonanza beneath our feet

The American energy sector is on the cusp of a tectonic transformation.

This week, members of the House Committee on Natural Resources heard testimony on the vast potential of geothermal energy as “a new era of American energy — built with American innovation, American technology and American workers,” as one witness put it.

Chris Wright, President Donald Trump’s new energy secretary, has fervently endorsed geothermal as a way to “energize our country,” and a March study found that geothermal could meet roughly two-thirds of the voracious energy demands of AI data centers by the early 2030s.

Even right here in New York City, new residential and office developments underway in Greenpoint, Coney Island and Manhattan are being built to rely significantly on this power source.  

Geothermal has the potential to be the Holy Grail of energy: unlimited and right under our feet.

But there’s a problem. Geothermal is expensive because it’s difficult to access . . . until now.

Today, American innovators are supercharging the geothermal energy revolution with directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the same technologies that delivered the miracle of American shale. 

“This isn’t a concept or a pilot, it’s a full-scale energy project in motion,” Tim Latimer of Fervo Energy told the House committee Monday, as he described the 500-megawatt plant his company is building in Utah.

“We’ve unlocked geothermal energy in places where it was previously impossible.”

Here’s how it works. The interior of the Earth is an inferno of hot rock and molten metal, and heat — whether from natural gas, nuclear or something else — is what we need to spin generator turbines to create electricity.

Shallow geothermal wells for small residential systems can access sufficient heat anywhere from a couple feet to several hundred feet below ground — the city-block-long Greenpoint project, for example, will use a geo-exchange system of 300 bored holes going down nearly 500 feet.

But the energy output needed for a power plant demands much deeper wells, sometimes reaching two miles below the surface.

Successfully drilling that deep to access this ever-present subterranean heat source has, until now, been extremely difficult.

But just like directional drilling opened up the extraction of previously unreachable oil and gas deposits in shale rock formations, the same technologies can unlock geothermal energy — and can do so almost anywhere in the country.

Drilling sideways into hot rocks far beneath the earth’s surface, then injecting high-pressure fluids, creates energy that turns turbines to generate electricity and power our factories, heat our homes, turn on our lights and fuel our vehicles.

And geothermal has a 90% capacity factor, meaning it can run at nearly full capacity continually without breaks, meeting round-the-clock energy demands and ensuring grid stability. 

New York state has made some small-scale geothermal investments, including tax credits for home geothermal systems.

But it will take the power of directional drilling to scale this domestic, reliable, carbon-free energy source for broader use.

If we seize the chance, the United States will dominate this massive emerging market, pioneering the geothermal tech used not only here but throughout the world.

If we don’t, we could lose out once again to China. 

Over recent decades, China has cornered the critical-mineral market — and with it, the renewable-energy technologies that depend on these resources.

Now, the United States is struggling to catch up in manufacturing products like solar panels and electric vehicles.

We can’t afford to stumble at the starting block when it comes to geothermal energy. 

If we exploit our oil and gas know-how to win the geothermal race, we can keep the world running on American tech in this vital sector — while keeping our nation from relying on the Chinese Communist Party. 

US-made directional drilling has done this once before.

Directional drilling drove down shale access costs enough to transform energy markets.

After it began to be implemented at scale in the early 2000s, US natural-gas production more than doubled. By 2016, this approach accounted for almost 70% of all oil and natural-gas wells.

Today, nobody can come close to America’s shale dominance.

If this method can do for geothermal what it did for shale, the costs of this energy source could plummet 80% by 2035, the International Energy Agency estimates.

Delivering geothermal at such a cost-value will make the United States the undisputed leader in the world’s next big energy market — yet again.

No wonder Trump called geothermal heat one of our country’s “amazing national assets” when he established his National Energy Dominance Council.

Directional drilling launched the shale revolution, altering history and strengthening our nation.

It’s time to unleash these same tools so America can lead the geothermal revolution, too.

Neil Chatterjee served as chairman and a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.