12 Jun 2008

Washington promoting green energy in Pacific territories

2:22 pm on 12 June 2008

The director of the United States Office of Insular Affairs, Nikolao Pula, says the Department of the Interior is to assess the energy situation in the US Pacific territories and promote the use of alternative energy sources.

Mr Pula who is in the Northern Marianas on an official visit said Congress wants to make sure there's an assessment of the energy situation in the U.S. territories.

He told a press conference the exciting thing about the CNMI is that it has some volcanoes in the north which have some potential for geothermal energy extraction.

The Marianas Variety newspaper quotes another Insular Affairs official, Douglas Domenech, who said that the northern island of Pagan has enormous beauty with great potential for geothermal energy, at least from preliminary reports.

He said funding from his office will jumpstart the exploratory studies on Pagan.