By Brooks Hays for UPI:  Researchers at the University of North Dakota believe geothermal energy production should be a significant part of America's future energy portfolio.

But to get the industry off the ground, proponents are looking to an industry not normally associated with renewable energy -- gas and oil drillers.

"Oil- and gas-producing sedimentary basins in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and North Dakota contain formation waters of a temperature that is adequate for geothermal power production," researchers wrote in their new study on the subject, published this week in the journal Geosphere.

Geothermal energy requires heat, and natural sources of heat lie deep within the ground. Gas and oil drillers have already built the infrastructure to access deep-lying natural resources. Of course, gas and oil drillers want gas and oil, not heat. But in their quest for gas and oil, they get heat nonetheless.  Cont'd...