‘The smokin’ hot trophy wife of the oil and gas industry’: The role of petro-masculinity in geothermal rhetoric and policy

This study applies the concept of “petro-masculinities” to understand geothermal rhetoric and policy under the second Trump administration. Petro-masculinity is a concept used to examine the entanglement of masculine identity, fossil fuel systems, and the patriarchal orders these systems support, in order to understand the support for fossil fuels within authoritarian movements. In the face of White House energy initiatives such as the January 2025 executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency,” renewable energy industries have been working to reframe themselves in terms of the Trump administration's language of “energy dominance” and “unleashing American potential.” This study conducts a thematic analysis of 1. executive branch messaging and 2. geothermal advocacy by the organization Project InnerSpace, as a case study of geothermal industry messaging. It examines how gendered and sexualized rhetoric is used to position geothermal energy in relation to traditional extractive industries in order to align with the priorities of the current administration. Geothermal communications have deployed “petro-masculine” tropes in order to align geothermal energy with fossil fuels industries and garner support amidst an administration skeptical of renewable energy growth. I discuss the implications of these communication strategies, arguing that a gendered repackaging of geothermal energy 1. undermines goals of energy justice and equity by normalizing a misogynistic industry culture, and 2. is likely to negatively impact public acceptance of emerging “next generation” geothermal technologies. • The second Trump administration has been favorable towards geothermal energy. • Geothermal advocates use energy dominance rhetoric to appeal to policy-makers. • Appeals include gendered and sexualized depictions of geothermal and the Earth. • Sexualized rhetoric may damage public acceptance.