Geothermal

Geothermal technology looks appears that it could really be the power of the future. It is easy to install and requires little to no maintenance. It is more efficient then the conventional way of cooling and heating your house. My question is why has it taken so long to use this technology if it is really as great as it sounds why have I not really heard of this before a few years ago when Washington College put in the technology. Could it be a large conspiracy from the power and oil companies to try and hide this technology away. Or is it that we were just to lazy to get away from our conventional technology. Looking at the price break down its a wonder that very few people have used this technology. Very little maintenance is needed for geothermal but if there is a problem how large of an issue is it to fix it. I would imagine that it would not be a large operation to fix something on the box that is in the house, but something happened to the pipe going into the ground that could be a large problem. What would happen if the pipe had a leak you would have to drill all the way down and replace that pipe. It would be interesting to see the down side of geothermal. What kind of environmental impact would there would there be? Obviously there would be an impact from the drilling and the machines having to drill but most of that could be fixed or replaced very quickly. But would there be any impact with having a pipe in the ground, for small borrowing animals, plants roots systems, insects and other bugs? To me it looks like a great way to conserve energy and lower your power bill and should be used in all houses as much as possible.