Building clean, reliable power w/ Fervo Energy 🌋⚡️🇺🇸. Formerly & always Team Peters & Team Hickenlooper. 🏝️🏔️ Pomona College proud 💙
Washington, DC
Joined June 2021
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Tom Erb retweeted
On a hillside north of Milford, Utah, the West’s energy future looks a lot like its past: 150 feet of latticed metal, centered around a drill.
But they aren’t searching for gas or oil.
Three years ago, Fervo Energy broke ground on this patch of federal land in Western Utah to pilot a new type of power plant — one that co-opts the hydraulic fracking techniques developed for the natural gas extraction to find a one-day replacement for fossil-fueled electricity: large-scale geothermal energy.
Fervo CEO Tim Latimer says recent estimates put the power plant at up to eight gigawatts, double the company’s original projection.
Could one Utah geothermal site power the state twice over? Read more in the thread below.
✏️: Mark Dee, Deseret News
📸: Laura Seitz, Deseret News
Jan 2023: "Excessive process is not the only climate challenge, but it is one, undeniably. And those of us committed to climate action, who say that it's the greatest threat we face, we're called on to rethink cumbersome requirements that are decelerating clean energy projects.."
This week, I made my pitch to Energy & Commerce Democrats to support the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, also known as BAAJA.
Here’s what I said. ⬇️🧵(1/11)
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Great article in @Deseret. Especially appreciate this line from Milford, Utah Mayor Nolan Davis:
"To Davis, Fervo has been a “fantastic neighbor,” starting the day he met Jewett in the early days of development.
“The first thing she said was, ‘What can we do for you”
🌋⚡️🏗️
Me in @Deseret: "Utah’s geothermal promise could revolutionize the West’s energy backbone"
@fervoenergy @TimMLatimer
deseret.com/utah/2026/11/12/…
Congrats to @TimMLatimer for being named as a "Titan" on @TIME's 2026 Time100 Climate list.
Grateful to wake up and help build a new clean energy industry every day. The Fervo team is the reason we are going to change the world. Let's build🏗️⚡️🌋
time.com/collection/time100-…
It's this. We've seen negotiators walk away from major permitting deals in 2023 & 2024. Now we have the best deal for clean energy compared to any of the past versions. Are we really going to double down on the status quo, again?
Tom Erb retweeted
One well pad. Multiple wells. A fraction of the footprint.
Best-practice geothermal development leaves a small imprint and a lasting positive impact. The Geothermal Sustainable Development Pact commits Fervo to minimizing land disturbance and protecting the ecosystems surrounding our sites — because where we work matters as much as how.
Fervo’s horizontal drilling technology accesses vast underground heat resources from a single surface location, dramatically reducing land disturbance compared to other forms of energy development. It’s the same approach that’s long powered the oil and gas industry, now applied to clean, 24/7 geothermal.
That same small footprint is what makes geothermal a valuable, carbon-free power source for the next generation of energy-intensive industries — from green hydrogen to lithium extraction — without the land footprint those industries have historically required.
Learn more about Fervo’s approach to land use: fervoenergy.com/technology/
If you want more clean, 24/7, zero-emission geothermal, pass BAAJA.
America's biggest and hottest geothermal systems are still out there, but if we can't get permission to go look for them, we won't find them
that's why we support BAAJA and hope Congress gets it passed; it's a serious, bipartisan effort to make it faster to build clean, cheap power in this country
most geothermal discovery starts with someone at a BLM field office opening a file with a proposed set of activities, but when the laws or regs are inconsistent or unclear, these permits stall out
also, a lot of these field offices are super stretched thin right now, see the GAO's (nonpartisan) breakdown of these staffing problems, among other ongoing issues, gao.gov/products/gao-26-1080…
these problems compound as exploration scales, and delayed or abandoned exploration means the difference between finding a few new reservoirs vs finding the best reservoirs
and the best reservoirs dwarf everything else! each geothermal giant we discover can power large cities for centuries to come
today, we desperately need an improved permissioning framework for geothermal to scale, and BAAJA is just that; let's get it done!
Tom Erb retweeted
Rarely is the such a chance for federal legislation to have such far reaching positive impacts. Passing BAAJA is critical to US leadership for a cleaner, more reliable and more affordable grid.
Tom Erb retweeted
.@JamesTalarico: We didn’t win by alienating our neighbors, or by shaming our neighbors, or by ridiculing our neighbors. We embodied a new kind of politics. A politics rooted in a deep love — for our state, for our country, and for all of our neighbors.
My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe.
Love is not passive. Love is not neutral. Love is not weak. Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied. Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink.
Love can heal what’s broken in America.
Tom Erb retweeted
Last night, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) told me something I keep thinking about: While Democrats may want to celebrate, they need to remember that this isn't a sporting event. This is Americans sending the strongest signal possible that they are in pain, and hurting, and want help. Now Congress needs to answer that call. It was powerful stuff, and if the party is smart they'll follow his instincts.
Tom Erb retweeted
If you haven't taken a look at Fervo's career page recently, I recommend it. Just an outrageous number of cool open positions across the whole company: fervoenergy.com/careers/
This is a huge problem in policymaking and is also true for congressional staffers (and worse for advocates). Get off the internet, go to a third place, act like decent humans, build trust, agree to get to yes together, and solve the problem.
Tom Erb retweeted
BAAJA blasts through the geothermal-fossil permitting parity gap: For two decades, oil and gas on federal land have had a faster permitting track than geothermal. A new Senate bill includes provisions that would close most of that gap.
publicenterprise.org/baaja-b…
So excited about this. The Fervo story is incredible, and we are just getting started. Give it a listen!
.@fervoenergy launched a six part podcast telling the story of the pioneering enhanced geothermal company's decade long path from Stanford class project to $2.2b IPO! fervoenergy.com/podcast/
Tom Erb retweeted
Another clean energy interest backs the Senate’s bipartisan permitting reform bill. Near unanimity across the energy sector
Tom Erb retweeted
“Geothermal is ready to power America’s future, but our permitting system is built for the past.” — Tim Latimer, CEO and co-founder of Fervo Energy
Fervo supports permitting reform that keeps pace with American energy innovation.
Okay thank you, @JaneAFlegal. Let's talk BAAJA & geothermal. If you want clean, affordable, baseload power and you want it fast, enhanced geothermal is your technology. If you want to unlock the Geothermal Decade even faster, BAAJA is your bill. 🧵
This is a dream bill for the growing geothermal industry. Huge thank you to @SenCapito, @SenWhitehouse, @SenMikeLee, and @SenatorHeinrich for crafting comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that treats geothermal like the national asset it is.