Monday morning the Kern County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting and approved California’s first carbon capture project.
The California Resources Corp.’s (CRC) project Carbon Capture and Storage Project Terra Vault I plans to permanently store greenhouse gas emissions underground from oil field installations in western Kern County.
With District 2 currently vacant, Supervisor Phillip Peters (District 1), Supervisor Jeff Flores (District 3), Chairman David Couch (District 4), and Supervisor Leticia Perez (District 5) were in attendance and voted 4-0 approval to give CRC the greenlight and permit to build the project.
“This is really a watershed, historic milestone moment in Kern County because Kern County continues to exhibit the pieces. The widgets necessary to be on the cutting edge of any industry whatsoever. And it is not possible without actual and true partnership like we see with CRC,” said Supervisor Perez before the approval vote.
According to CRC, the project will bring CO2 and store atmospheric or produced carbon dioxide. In this case, it’s being injected underground for permanent storage. An example of the process being proposed, a source generates CO2. A capture technology is built next to the source. The CS2 is captured by a process, pressurized or compressed for transport by pipeline to the injection well, and then it is sent over a mile underground to the permanent pore space.
According to CRC officials the project will:
- CCS underground pore space: Only the area underground where the injected CO2 will be permanently stored untitled it becomes part of the geological rock. The empty space, between the rocks, belongs by State law, to the surface owner, not the mineral owner.
- CCS Surface Land Area: The area on the surface within the boundaries of the CUP legal description.
- Class VI injection wells and CO2 Pipelines: Specific equipment and wells where the highest potential for leakage of CO2 may occur.
- Carbon Capture Facility: The actual building and equipment that includes the process used to capture CO2 from a source. This is not normally located next to the Class VI injection wells but some distance away at a source with a CO2 pipeline then moving the CO2 to the injection well site.
- Facility CO 2 Pipeline: Provides transport onsite and does not extend to areas not covered by the Conditional Use Permit
The meeting followed after the Kern County Planning Commission meeting last month proposing the project (read story here ), which had a crowd turned out with public comments from people on both sides of the issue.
Several community members and environmental justice advocates voiced their concerns about the air pollution and the danger of carbon dioxide the project can bring to Kern County and throughout California. While those who support the project said it will help Kern County’s economy.
“I just wanted to note that some of these groups that are coming down and speaking against this project, I mean, they do this all the time,” said Supervisor Peters regarding those who made public comments against the project. “They’re throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks, but they’re not bringing any projects down here. I don’t see any projects from them that are creating jobs that are doing anything to benefit the environment.”
“I just want to defend that it’s okay for them to come here and be concerned about this project. It will incentivize new polluting infrastructure throughout Kern County. It is entirely reasonable for all residents to come here and share their health concerns. This will not clean our air,” said Ileana Navarro with the Central California Environmental Justice Network.
“What we have here today is a failure of integrity,” said Bakersfield resident Lori Pesante said to the board members. “…The planning commission was asked to consider safety. Not a single person on your planning commission considered this project immense three times the green house gas emissions it will quester, theoretically.”
