It was a good year for geothermal, and much of that credit must go to Doug Dougherty and his staff at the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO). Well, if you can call the 1.5 people working for the GEO president and CEO his “staff.” You’d never guess that his staff was so small by looking at the items the group accomplished this year. Those accomplishments are the reason Dougherty was named a 2012 NEWSmaker.
GEO calls itself “the voice of the geothermal heat pump industry in the United States,” and in 2012 that voice was heard by legislators all over the country. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of GEO was having the state of Maryland recognize geothermal heating and cooling as a renewable energy source. Maryland was the first state to pass such legislation, and GEO was heavily involved.