Steam rises from geothermal plants along the edge of the Salton Sea in Imperial County on on February 15, 2024.
That’s mattered a lot in this county, where joblessness is widespread and more than 20% of the population lives below the poverty line. But most of those sweeping promises have fizzled out.. Companies are racing to drill deep below the Salton Sea and tap into vast reserves of lithium, a key mineral in the batteries that power electric cars and other technology. State and local leaders envision a future where the region is a global hub for the energy transition.
“It's a system where poverty is endemic because the profits, the wealth, are so skewedly distributed,” Andrés said.. Much of those pollutants come from cropland burning, diesel fumes and the drying of the Salton Sea, which is releasing pesticide and heavy metal-laden dust.
Geothermal was also poised to offer a new source of long-term jobs. A 50-megawatt plant needs anywhere between 600 to 900 workers to keep it running, according to theFor one, the brine they were pumping out of the ground near the Salton Sea was much hotter than geothermal companies were used to. With the technology at the time, it was also a challenge to accurately position the plants in the right place to tap into those geothermal pockets.