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I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Everywhere in the world, deep underneath our feet, is an enormous and powerful source of heat.

The potential of geothermal energy is something we hear about a lot in the conversation around

sustainable energy alternatives. You've probably heard about it on this very show.

In this talk, geothermal trailblazer Cindy Taft shares how she's redeploying oil and gas

drilling tools to tap the energy

stored in the deep, hot, dry rock that exists everywhere.

Okay, so if you can't tell already, I'm from Texas.

And I also spent my career in the oil and gas industry.

So do you hate me yet?

Let's hope not.

So I went into oil and gas because energy is life.

And I wanted to be able to provide people with lights, air conditioning,

heat, and of course, the ability to watch funny cat videos on their phone.

But energy also evolves. So humans used to burn wood for heat and light. We then transition to whale oil into coal and then to oil and gas.

But we're now using renewables like solar and wind.

And it's this exciting evolution to clean renewable energy

that inspired me to leave shell and start my own geothermal

company with my partners. And so we're now using that mud on your boots know-how from the oil and

gas industry to drill for heat instead of for hydrocarbons. So most people don't know this, but there's a lot of heat

deep in the earth, and the deeper you drill, the hotter it gets. And it's this heat, this energy.

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