A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit to stop a carbon capture project approved in October by the Kern County Board of Supervisors. The project site is in Elk Hills in western Kern County. 

Among other things, the suit claims county officials failed to do their due diligence in vetting the project and violating the California Environmental Quality Act. Additionally, it claims the county did not thoroughly analyze the project’s impact on nearby communities. The project was proposed by Long Beach-based California Resources Corporation, or CRC, the state’s largest oil and gas company. Its plan is to capture and inject 49 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to store underground at CRC’s Elk Hills site located 20 miles west of Bakersfield. 

“Kern County has bought into the misleading claim that this project will reduce climate impacts, opening the door to significant federal and state financial subsidies for CCS,” said Michelle Ghafar, an attorney at Earthjustice. “This is exactly the type of ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ diversion by the oil and gas industry that Californians must oppose if we want to make real climate progress. We must invest in renewable energy, not false solutions hawked by the source of the problem.” 

A county spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit or its allegations. The coalition of environmentalists includes Earthjustice representing Central California Environmental Justice Network and Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity is representing itself, and the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment is representing the Committee for a Better Shafter, Delano Guardians, and Comité Progreso de Lamont.