Except for a few scattered native American villages, and an occasional U.S. military installation, the Aleutians are uninhabited. So here was the potential for a series of power plants in nobody's back yard, drawing electricity from natural resources that should produce energy for many, many centuries. It isn't practical to run power lines from the Aleutians all the way to the major population centers of the western United States, so what Wescott really found was an enormous source of energy where nobody could use it. So the whole idea kind of died, except in the mind of Gene Wescott. As the years rolled by, the world grew even more dependent on fossil fuels, and we grew somewhat more aware of the real cost.
Fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases that many scientists believe are making the planet warmer.
That could have a devastating impact around the globe. And some day, by the way, those fuels are going to run out. In recent years, Wescott has returned to the idea of building geothermal power plants in the Aleutians, and using that electricity to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen could be liquified, he says, and shipped to Asia or the west coast of the United States. One of the largest geothermal resources he found in his earlier research is near the major port deepwater port of Dutch Harbor, making it almost seem as though providence planned the whole thing.