California’s first plan to cap greenhouse gases wins critical approval

In a major step toward California’s first attempt to bury greenhouse gases underground, the Kern County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved it. an extensive oil and gas field project.

The project by California Resources Corp., the nation’s largest oil and gas producer, will capture millions of tons of carbon dioxide and inject it into the ground in the western San Joaquin Valley south of Buttonwillow.

The Carbon Terra Vault project is part of a broader effort by the oil and gas industry to stay active in a country that is trying to decarbonize. Although the company still faces other steps, the county’s approval is the main development that moves the project forward.

The Newsom administration has promoted carbon capture and sequestration technology as a key element in California’s efforts to tackle climate change — playing a major role in the administration’s proposed cuts greenhouse gases over the next 20 years.

At a packed four-hour meeting in Bakersfield today, community members and environmental justice advocates raised concerns about air pollution from the project and the safety of underground carbon dioxide injection, while Oil industry representatives and local supporters say it will give Kern County an economic boost. .

“The Carbon Terra Vault will encourage new polluting facilities in the Kern County environment,” said Ileana Navarro, community organizer for the Central California Environmental Justice Network, based in Bakersfield. This will not purify our soul.

Francisco Leon, CEO of California Resources Corp., told county officials the project would save high-paying jobs while reducing carbon emissions. He said the company is committed to investing in the community and preparing local workers for jobs in the emerging field of “carbon control,” including through a partnership with Kern Community College.

“When we talk about the change of power, the jobs must be so good, it can’t be one person,” said Leon, speaking at the hearing. “The state of California wants energy transition. This is the way you do it, with plans that deliver on every goal. We’re ready to go.”

Before construction can begin, the United States Environmental Protection Agency will have to give final approval to the project. At the beginning of this year, the agency received permission for the company to build four wells to pour carbon dioxide into the ground, and the company is looking for two more. Additionally, for a company to be eligible for state clean fuel credits, the California Air Resources Board must certify it as eligible.

Construction will take about two years for the carbon capture plants and a year for the pipeline, according to the environmental impact report.

“The state of California wants energy transition. This is the way you do it, with plans that deliver on every goal. We’re ready to go.”

Francisco Leon, CEO of California Resources Corp.

Experts say the Kern County area is important because the San Joaquin Valley is ideal for carbon storage. The EPA permits are the first in the nation to be issued for a damaged oil and gas field, according to the company.

With oil production down in California, the oil and gas industry and labor unions say the technology can save jobs while ensuring the industry captures and stores more of the greenhouse gases it emits.

But environmental advocates opposed the plan, saying polluting fossil fuel industries need to go full steam ahead as California transitions to an economy driven by renewable energy. They say that the dams can prolong the life of oil and gas and that the project will remove air pollutants that can cause health hazards in the valley’s lower villages.

Gordon Nipp, vice chairman of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, called the plan a “confused plan” that would waste money and create fewer local jobs.

“If carbon was left in the ground to begin with, that would be a simpler and more effective way to solve the climate problem, and there would be no harmful emissions in the air,” he said.

But County Supervisor Phillip Peters criticized environmental groups. “I don’t see projects from them that create jobs, that do anything to benefit the environment,” he said. Peters, who worked in the oil fields of Kern County, added that “I am very surprised by this argument that these oil industry facilities are being deliberately located in unsafe communities…

“I am not an apologist. I am proud of our oil sector,” said CEO Jeff Flores. “It provides jobs, and I think it’s a morally arrogant position to say that your jobs don’t matter.”

In a 4-0 vote, county commissioners approved the zoning change and permission to use “underground storage of approximately 49.1 million tons of carbon dioxide” in two underground reservoirs. about 9,000 acres in its Elk Hills Oil and Gas field. along with the pipe and new equipment to capture it.

Carbon dioxide would be removed from the natural gas produced in the field before it is burned in the company’s power plant, which supplies power for Pacific Gas & Electric. Carbon would also be captured in a proposed hydrogen plant and a direct air capture project that would use fans and filters to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

California Resources Corp. plans to collect annually 1.46 million tons of carbon dioxide and deposit it more than a kilometer deep in the Monterey Formation, a large geological structure that has long been an important source of California’s oil.

During the years of construction, heavy equipment would release exhaust gases and fine particles, and while the factory was operating, some fugitive emissions would come from the carbon capture process. , according to the environmental impact report. Those pollutants will be controlled by local air quality officials. The report also warns that the project may harm or disturb protected flora and fauna, including lizards, birds of prey, kit fox, and therefore measures are needed to avoid them.

The EPA will require the company to monitor injection wells for hundred years to ensure that no groundwater is contaminated. Preliminary analyzes suggest that no sources of drinking water are threatened by injecting carbon into the reservoir. But the project would use a lot of groundwater in an already over-pumped basin.

A coalition of environmental justice groups including the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and EarthJustice, called the plan “inadequate” under California’s environmental law. The groups said the environmental report fails to take into account that fossil fuel activities will be expanded in the area.

13 more carbon proposals pending in California

Carbon capture technology has been around since the 1970s and has been tested in some countries and in other countries, often in coal-fired power plants, although the projects have been criticized as expensive and difficult.

In the US, most of the carbon produced underground was used to extract oil from wells, a practice that California has banned by 2022. The Kern County project would remove carbon dioxide from natural gas produced in oil fields.

Starting in 2022, the Biden administration is rushing to build these projects in the US through the extension of federal tax credits under the Affordable Care Act. Applications for 250 carbon injection wells are pending statewide, according to the Clean Air Task Force, a Boston-based energy policy that evaluates the effort.

The Kern County project is seen as the first step in turning California into a carbon sequestration center — a venture that could receive tens of billions in federal subsidies.

State officials are also evaluating 13 other carbon capture proposals in California, mostly in the Central Valley, at oil facilities, power plants and other facilities.

California Resources Corp., through its Carbon TerraVault bond, holds seven of those applications, seeking approval for 38 wells. The company has released injection details for only some of these proposed wells; those projects could qualify for federal tax credits of up to $6 billion over 12 years. Aera Energy, now a subsidiary of California Resources Corp., also has an application for a conservation project carbon.

California is required by state law to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045 – meaning that all carbon emissions from human activities have been eliminated by projects that remove them. To achieve that mandate, California officials by 2022 adopted an ambitious plan that eliminates 94% of fossil fuels but also relies on carbon capture.

To stay on track, California Air Resources Board officials told CalMatters that the state must rely on carbon sequestration more than previously thought.

“It became clear that we cannot get to 85% below 1990 levels (of greenhouse gases) by 2045 without extensive use of (carbon sequestration) in large-scale sources come out,” they said.