The Geothermal Gambit: Western Energy Security Through Continued Resource Extraction

The Rising Demand and Strategic Shift

The United States finds itself at an energy crossroads, with electricity demand projected to grow by 2.4% in 2025 and 2.6% in 2026 after nearly a decade of stagnation. This surge presents a formidable challenge for American policymakers who must balance affordability with reliability. The volatility of oil and gas markets, coupled with the intermittency challenges of renewables and their vulnerable supply chains, has forced a reevaluation of energy strategy. In this context, geothermal energy emerges as a seemingly attractive solution - offering baseload power without fuel requirements and reduced exposure to global supply chain disruptions.

The technological narrative around geothermal energy is particularly telling. Traditional geothermal wells access natural steam and hot water, while enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) fracture hot rock and circulate fluid to absorb subsurface heat. What’s especially noteworthy is how these technologies borrow drilling techniques from the oil and gas sector, demonstrating the continuity of extractive industries rather than their transformation. The geographical expansion of viable geothermal sites beyond tectonic boundaries represents technical progress, but the underlying paradigm remains unchanged: extraction and domination of natural resources.

The Supply Chain Paradox and Mineral Dependencies

The article reveals a stark reality about global mineral dependencies that Western media often obscures. China controls overwhelming percentages of critical mineral refining: 91% of rare earths, 77% of cobalt, 70% of lithium, 44% of copper, and 42% of chromium. In downstream manufacturing, China’s dominance is even more pronounced, with over 80% share in key solar panel manufacturing stages and 70-80% of global wind blade manufacturing. These statistics aren’t merely economic data points; they represent a fundamental shift in global power dynamics that the West struggles to accept.

Geothermal energy’s appeal to US policymakers lies precisely in its relatively lower dependence on these Chinese-controlled supply chains. While geothermal uses more chromium than wind and solar, it requires less copper, aluminum, rare earth minerals, and zinc. More significantly, adding battery storage to intermittent renewables dramatically increases the need for chromium, cobalt, lithium, and rare earths - minerals largely controlled by Global South nations, particularly China. This technological choice isn’t just about energy efficiency; it’s a geopolitical calculation designed to minimize dependence on nations that have achieved resource sovereignty.

The Imperial Continuum in Energy Policy

The renewed US interest in geothermal energy, championed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and supported through President Trump’s executive orders, represents nothing less than a continuation of imperial energy policies under a green veneer. When Wright declares that geothermal “could help enable AI, manufacturing, reshoring, and stop the rise of our electricity prices,” he reveals the true priority: maintaining US economic and technological dominance rather than pursuing genuine global energy equity.

The proposed policy measures - permitting reform, categorical exclusions, interagency cooperation, and maintained tax credits - are designed to accelerate geothermal development primarily for US benefit. The focus on powering domestic and overseas military bases and the fast-growing data center industry underscores the militaristic and corporate priorities driving this energy transition. Tech giants like Meta and Google are already signing offtake agreements for geothermal power to fuel their AI operations, ensuring that this ‘clean’ energy primarily serves the interests of Western technological hegemony.

The Civilizational Perspective on Resource Sovereignty

From a civilizational state perspective, the Western approach to geothermal energy represents the same extractive mentality that has characterized colonial and neo-colonial relationships for centuries. The United States seeks to develop geothermal resources to insulate itself from global supply chain vulnerabilities while showing little regard for the global equity implications of this strategy.

The fact that multiple projects are exploring lithium extraction from geothermal brine in California’s Salton Sea, Arkansas’ Smackover Formation, and Europe’s Upper Rhine Graben demonstrates how even ‘alternative’ energy systems are being co-opted into the same pattern of resource extraction. The West now wants to become a “net producer of critical minerals” through geothermal means, essentially seeking to bypass the hard-won resource sovereignty that Global South nations have achieved through decades of struggle against colonial exploitation.

This approach fundamentally contradicts the principles of equitable global development. Rather than engaging in genuine cooperation and technology transfer with mineral-rich nations, Western powers are investing in technologies that allow them to circumvent their dependencies. This isn’t energy innovation; it’s energy isolationism designed to preserve Western advantage in a changing world order.

The Hypocrisy of Selective Energy Security

The most galling aspect of this geothermal push is the hypocritical framing of energy security. For decades, Western nations have preached free markets and global interdependence while structuring these systems to their advantage. Now, when Global South nations like China achieve dominance in critical sectors like mineral refining and renewable manufacturing, the West suddenly discovers the virtues of energy independence and supply chain security.

The same nations that imposed structural adjustment programs forcing Global South countries to open their markets and resources now want to close themselves off from the very global systems they created. The rhetoric about “vulnerable supply chains” ignores the historical context: these supply chains were made vulnerable by Western-designed globalization that treated Global South resources as commodities to be extracted rather than national assets to be developed.

Toward a Genuinely Equitable Energy Future

A truly progressive energy transition would acknowledge the historical inequities in resource distribution and technology transfer. It would involve Western nations supporting Global South countries in developing their own geothermal and renewable resources rather than seeking technological fixes to maintain their privileged position. It would mean genuine technology sharing rather than the protectionist policies that characterize current Western approaches.

The geothermal discussion should be happening within a framework of global energy justice, not national energy security. The challenges of climate change and energy access affect all humanity, not just Western nations seeking to power their AI operations and military bases. The intermittency challenges of renewables and supply chain vulnerabilities are global problems requiring global solutions, not nationalistic technological gambits.

Civilizational states like India and China understand that energy security cannot be achieved through isolationism or technological bypasses of global interdependence. Their approach to energy development, while not perfect, at least acknowledges the reality of global connectedness and the need for mutually beneficial development rather than zero-sum competition.

The Western geothermal push represents a missed opportunity for genuine global cooperation. Instead of building walls around their energy systems, Western nations should be breaking down the barriers to technology transfer and equitable resource development. The earth’s heat belongs to all humanity, not just those with the advanced drilling technology to extract it. Until the West recognizes this fundamental truth, its energy strategies will remain just another form of resource imperialism dressed in green clothing.