More Federal Money For AltaRock
AltaRock received another $26.5 million in grants from the Department of Energy today for two new geothermal drilling projects -- despite claims that its drilling project in the California Geysers could cause earthquakes. The New York Times ran a story in June comparing Altarock's California project to a 2006 project in Basel, Switzerland, where an earthquake damaged buildings and frightened residents with a loud roaring noise. Aftershocks followed for several months. AltaRock -- which has raised over $30 million from Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, GreatPoint Ventures, Google.org and others to provide clean energy by extracting heat from rocks -- wasn't behind the Basel project and disputed the Times' claims. But the story prompted a review by the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management, which said that although AltaRock could keep drilling, it couldn't fracture any rock in California until the agencies decided it was safe.
