Geothermal Heat Pumps: Benefitting the Economy and the Environment
On Wednesday June 2nd, 2010 Carnegie Mellon University here in Pittsburgh had the opportunity to host President Obama as he addressed the current economic state of the U.S. During his address, President Obama recognized clean energy solutions as essential to rebuilding America and vowed to “prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.” A move towards clean energy will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but will also lead to the creation of hundreds of thousands new jobs.
While the United States cannot rely solely on one form of clean energy, geothermal heat pumps are invaluable to the green movement. Geothermal heat pumps are 400% more efficient than traditional methods of heating and cooling (see Geothermal Heat Pumps: 400% Efficient) and 70% of the energy used by geothermal heat pumps is renewable. Currently there are 1,000,000 geothermal heat pumps installed in the United States which is the equivalent of taking almost 1,295,000 cars off the road, planting more than 385 million trees or reducing U.S. dependency on imported fuels by 21.5 million barrels of oil (Information from My Green Comfort). Imagine the impact of a more widespread movement towards geothermal heat pumps!
Aside from providing an efficient source of green energy, the installation of geothermal heat pumps creates a number of clean energy jobs, boosting our economy. President Obama stated that “The tax credits and loan guarantees in the Recovery Act alone will lead to 720,000 clean energy jobs in America by 2012” and the geothermal heat pump industry is a part of this job creation. A $2,000 state tax rebate for the installation of geothermal heat pumps has the potential to generate over 200 heat pump sales per state by the end of this year. This would result in approximately 135 new green collar jobs per state at the end of this year, almost 7,000 new jobs in all 50 states (Check out this Press Release for more information)!
President Obama is committed to making the United States a greener country and reducing our carbon-footprint. Geothermal heat pumps have the ability to not only help the environment and reduce our reliance on foreign oil but also improve our economic situation.
Consider replacing your furnace and air conditioning unit with a geothermal heat pump and go green!
Check out these articles for more information on Geothermal Heat Pumps:
How Does a Geothermal Heat Pump Work?
Geothermal Heating and Cooling: The New Emergence of an Old Technology
Geothermal Heating: A Lifetime Investment
