Funny.bytes
a look at the lighter side of BLM issues

George - The Little Geothermal Plant 

A small home geothermal plant operates with the sounds of hot steam escaping. A brick wall surrounds the little geothermal plant with mountains in the background. 

"George - The Little Geothermal Plant" appears over a cloud of steam.

Prehistoric music plays and a prehistoric landscape reveals volcanoes spewing smoke, a jungle, river, and lake are in a valley in the distance.  In the foreground steams from geysers. "A Very Long Time Ago." Moments later a pterodactyl flies across the scene. 

The prehistoric landscape changes to modern day. "Today..." Modern music plays as a town appears in the valley. Snow-covered mountains are in the background.  The scene zooms in on City Hall, with sounds of people chattering and a typewriter in the distance. The scene zooms in on a hall where a meeting is taking place. Many people are there and at the front of the room displays a banner, "Geothermal Site Proposal."  Below the banner is the speaker at the pavilion, talking and pointing to a list on a poster:

ADVANTAGES
 -Renewable
 -Clean
 -No Emissions 

On the right of the facilitator is a graph with a rising slope concerning CO2. 

A man discusses his concerns regarding the geothermal plant with a woman. A bubble with his impression of the geothermal plant shows a complex power plant, taking up a lot of acreage. The environment surround the geothermal plant looks impacted. The woman discusses her ideas for the geothermal plant, a much cleaner, smaller plant, with a small footprint impacting much less space.

"An Understanding is reached."
The man and woman come to an agreement and shake hands.

"Capturing the Steam."
A little geothermal plant, similar to the one proposed by the woman, is developed. Steam is spewing out from the ground.  The little power plant muscles up to take on this new job, then inserts his pipes in the ground to catch the escaping steam.  The geothermal plant smiles while glancing at one of its arms and then smiles big. 

"Generating the electricity."
The geothermal plant passes the energy to an electrical generator located just outside the building. The geothermal plant blinks and smiles. The sound of steam is heard.  As the sound of electricity is heard, the geothermal plant looks at the generator as it bobs up and down in activity and smiles. 

"Power to the Grid."
The geothermal plant and generator are hooked to power lines. The sound of electricity is heard as the generator sends electricity through the power lines to the power grid. Moments later, the geothermal plant smiles. 

"Somewhere in town"
A man is asleep, and snoring loudly, in his easy chair in front of the TV. The TV is on, as well as most all electric appliances. In the kitchen the refrigerator is left open and a light emits from inside. In the living room: a lava lamp is on, the floor lamp is on, the fish aquarium is on, as a cat sleeps on a rug with a fire in the fireplace. The TV displays a "Special Report."

"Special Report Weather Watch"
Dramatic music from the weather report plays, as the reporter begins....

"This Special Report.  A major storm is approaching, and it looks really nasty!"

The television displays a map with storm symbols. 

"Not far from town."
Storm clouds are developing just outside town. A menacing face appears in the clouds. Rain is pelting down and the wind is blowing. Suddenly a thunder clap is heard as a lightening bolt comes from the sky and hits a power line, breaking the post and severing some of the lines. The face in the storm clouds appears to be pleased.  Live power lines are popping on the ground and electricity is shooting out.

Back at the man's house, he is still asleep, snoring loudly. Moments later the power goes out and the lights in the house go off.  Only the dark figures of the objects in the house and the eyes of the man, the cat, and the fish can be seen.   The man says, "What the heck was that?" and the cat starts meowing and runs off.  

Back at the geothermal power plant, Stanley (a robot) shouts to George (the little geothermal plant), "George!  George, the city has lost all of its electricity!  We need to generate more power and send it to the city!"  

Stanley runs inside to switch some controls. Dramatic music plays as Stanley works. Outside, George is flexing his pipes and gears up to work extra hard to save the city. With a determined look, George puts his pipes back in the ground to collect the steam. Stanley, working on the control panel, runs outside and watches.  George with a concerned facial expression, watches the generator send electricity. As the electricity is diverted from the broken power lines through a new route, electricity makes its way to the city and the city lights up. As electricity is restored to the city, Stanley jumps for joy and yells out: "Yeeeeeeeesss!" and George smiles.  The sound of electricity is heard as all is well.

"Geothermal energy comes from the earth's own heat."

"Geothermal energy is clean and constant; available 24 hours a day"

"Five percent of California's total energy comes from geothermal resources on private and public lands."

"Geothermal resources from BLM public lands provide electricity to 500,000 people daily."

For more information, visit these websites on the internet:

U.S. Department of Energy
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal

Geothermal Resources Council
http://www.geothermal.org/virtualgeo.html

California Energy Commission
http://www.energy.ca.gov/geothermal/overview.html

BLM's Geothermal Energy Program
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/energy/geothermal.html
 

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