Associated Press: The Interior Department plans to make available 190 million acres of federal land in a dozen Western states for development of geothermal energy projects — a move that could produce enough electricity for 5 million homes. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Wednesday that under a leasing program, as many as 270 communities could benefit from direct use of geothermal energy, generated from intense heat deep beneath the Earth. “Geothermal energy is replenished, is a …