A California County Wants to Make More Carbon, is it an Opportunity for Oil and Gas Producers
Carbon and California are historically unpredictable for oil and gas, are times changing?
Officials in California’s top oil-producing county have plans for an industrial park to produce renewable energy, with the goal of protecting jobs and tax revenue threatened by the decline of the oil and gas industry.
Towards that goal, Kern County wants to use billions of dollars in federal tax credits to collect and bury carbon. But such carbon sequestration plans extend the life of fossil fuel producers that contribute to climate change — and produce more air pollution rather than sending clean power directly to consumers, says Stanford University engineering professor Mark Jacobson.
He tells The Slick’s Aaron Cantú that Kern’s carbon park has “no purpose except to keep the oil and gas companies in business.”
The proposed Carbon Management Business Park would include 47 square miles of solar arrays, more than twice the size of Manhattan. The park could include several businesses, including plants that turn agricultural waste, like nut shells and orchard trimmings, into gas fuel.
In other West Coast News, California’s air quality regulatory agency has been riven with tension in recent months, with staff barred from communicating with a former top agency scientist who criticized gas lobbyists and a director.
The scientist, Jim Duffy, wrote that the California Air Resources Board and industry representatives have made misleading statements about subsidies for clean fuels.
He has been a critic of subsidies that the state gives to dairies and gas companies for collecting methane from cow manure, claiming that the policy diverts money from cleaner alternatives such as electricity from solar energy, reports Cantú.
With the IRA give away, it's make economic sense for old or low production Basin, an politician would be foolish not to entertain the idea