Could this clean energy source be Idaho’s newest gold rush? | Opinion

Idaho’s latest rush for gold is a race for hot rock to power our lives.

The Idaho Gold Rush of the 1860s transformed a rugged wilderness and accelerated the creation of the Idaho Territory. In the early 1900s, Idaho’s land rush saw homesteaders claim 20% of Idaho’s acreage, fundamentally shaping our state’s agricultural identity.

Idaho completely missed out on the traditional “black gold rush” that enriched our neighbors, leaving us largely dependent on importing fossil fuels. But today, a new frontier is opening up, and Idaho is uniquely positioned to sit right at the center of the next great American energy boom: the Hot Rock Gold Rush.

Boiseans already know the value of Mother Earth’s heat. We proudly have the largest municipal geothermal heating system in the nation, keeping downtown buildings warm with zero emissions. And there could be more — much more. A massive technological leap now allows us to use deep-earth heat to generate large-scale electricity for our power grid.

This breakthrough is called enhanced geothermal systems. Instead of hunting for rare, naturally occurring underground hot springs, engineers drill miles down into the super-hot volcanic rock — like the deep basalt and rhyolite layers that sit beneath southern Idaho. By utilizing horizontal drilling techniques pioneered by the oil and gas industry, developers cycle water directly through these engineered deep-earth fractures to absorb intense heat and bring it back up to spin clean-energy turbines. The process can power our state with zero fuel costs, zero carbon emissions and a tiny geographic footprint as most of the surface remains untouched.

The company leading this revolution, Fervo Energy, has already proven the technical mechanics on a limited scale in Nevada. Now, the company is scaling it to a massive commercial reality at its 500-megawatt Cape Station plant in Utah, which is on track to deliver its first power to the grid later this year.

On May 13, the financial world took notice as Fervo launched a wildly successful $1.89 billion initial public offering on Nasdaq, driving the company’s market valuation past $10 billion in its first days of trading. With the benefit of market demand, Fervo increased both the share price and the number of shares offered the day before the IPO. They now have the funds to more rapidly bring enhanced geothermal systems to scale.

So the rush is on to explore and secure the premier geothermal sites in Idaho. That gold rush has actively begun on our public lands. In late 2025, the Bureau of Land Management shattered a decade of stagnant leasing by auctioning leases on more than 92,000 acres of federal land in Idaho for geothermal exploration. The $5 million raised will benefit schools and services in the counties involved. This coming November, the BLM will host an even larger competitive auction, putting roughly 114,000 acres up for lease across seven Idaho counties, including nearby Owyhee and Elmore.

Idaho Power has been slow to focus on Idaho’s potential for geothermal power. In March, Idaho Power gained approval from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for doubling the capacity of its gas-fired plant in Mountain Home with plans for more of the same. That means more climate-harming emissions while tying our future power bills to the rising price of out-of-state natural gas. Let’s hope that with the Fervo news, we can wake them up to the opportunity for a better Idaho future.

We also need the help of our powerful U.S. senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. Urge them to champion a bipartisan approach to permitting reform. That would greatly accelerate development of geothermal and other needed energy solutions. The Geothermal Tax Parity Act co-sponsored by Idaho’s U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher would also help by giving to geothermal the same tax benefits enjoyed for the last century by oil and gas.

The bottom line comes to this. Idaho has the hot rock gold potential for adding energy independence, economic prosperity and a healthier climate to our future. Still, we must urge our state and national leaders to help us find that gold.

Don Kemper is a Boise resident and local climate solutions advocate.