Environmental attacks on Kern County’s oil and gas production meet industry demands to promote carbon burial technologies that are considered to help the state meet its climate goals while at the same time create substantial local employment opportunities. I am facing more and more.
A new head of Bakersfield-based oil producer Aera Energy LLC recently expressed the idea that local oilfield operators need the expertise to remove greenhouse gases directly from air or industrial emissions. It has ideal access to vast geological formations. Carbon capture and quarantine, or storage deep underground in a process called CCS.
At least one such project proposed locally is in the design phase, and the company behind it, Santa Clarita-based California Resources Corp., used California’s “many” depleted oil fields last month. Announced that it hopes to accelerate work with CCS technology.
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as well as leaders in the B3K Economic Development Collaboration, emphasize the potential of Khan’s CCS. However, to date, such projects have not begun construction in California and there is no regulatory or financial framework needed to support them.
A better alternative?
Aera President and CEO Erik Bartsch said in a newsletter sent Tuesday that California policymakers should adopt CCS rather than ban hydraulic fracturing.
Bartsch argued that the oil industry has the engineering and project management skills needed to develop competitive CCS projects.
“It benefits both the state and its people to create legislative and regulatory channels to encourage the industry to develop CCS hubs in the Central Valley,” he writes.
Newsom’s office says it’s working on it. Asked to respond to Bartsch’s comments, the Governor’s Office confirmed that CCS is playing a role in helping California achieve its climate goals. But the email also states that the state needs to understand exactly where and how to proceed.
Newsome’s office is examining the role of carbon sequestration in the state’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 by the California Air Resources Board, so an inter-ministerial workgroup is working on CCS. He said he was working on coordinating various policy and regulatory efforts to support.
CARB’s considerations on this issue include incorporating CCS into California’s low-carbon fuel standards. This requires oil companies to contribute financially or operationally to the fight against climate change.
CARB did not respond to the request for comment.
Various formats
Carbon recovery and isolation can take many forms. It typically uses large amounts of energy to extract carbon dioxide from the air or certain waste streams and turn it into a solid, such as biochar, or a liquid that can be stored underground.
The CRC project is proposing to the company’s…
Read More: Oil industry advocates state action on carbon storage | News