AAUW celebrates Women’s History Month in March with storytelling
March has been designated by American Association of University Women as Women’s History Month.
Tehachapi Mountain Branch has been bringing stories of women to the community for many years. A storytelling group, founded by AAUW member Carol Coleman, began going to classrooms and service clubs about 20 years ago to demonstrate what women have accomplished during the past. Dressed in costume, the storytellers pretended to be some woman in history.
This year, the group could not do these presentations because of restrictions imposed by COVID. However, they still wanted to study and learn about the things women have accomplished. About half a dozen members wrote scripts and will present them at a Zoom meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 10.
AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. Membership is open to any graduate holding an associate degree or higher degree from an accredited institution.
Dues are $102 per year, which includes membership in both the state and national AAUW. New members who attend the March 7 meeting are entitled to discounted dues. Call 972-6508 for membership questions. More information about the branch is available at tehachapimountain-ca.aauw.net.
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Make no mistake. This is a challenge and opposition that’s not based on science or facts. This is based on politics and a misguided notion that puts hard-working Californians out of work and threatens our energy supplies.”
— Erik Bartsch, new president and CEO of Aera Energy LLC
The new head of Bakersfield-based oil producer Aera Energy LLC on Thursday condemned growing calls to end California petroleum production, charging in an exclusive interview that the industry’s opponents are ignoring science and confusing people into supporting a “dangerous idea” that would cost jobs, tax revenue and energy independence without making needed progress against climate change.
Orange County native Erik Bartsch, who last year left a job in the Netherlands with Shell Oil Co. to become president and CEO of a company with 1,100 employees in Kern, said renewed efforts in Sacramento to ban fracking and certain other important oilfield techniques would effectively shut down in-state oil production.
“Make no mistake,” he said. “This is a challenge and opposition that’s not based on science or facts. This is based on politics and a misguided notion that puts hard-working Californians out of work and threatens our energy supplies.”
He went on to say the industry’s opponents are “trying to confuse people into thinking that stopping production in California is a smart move to help the climate issues and meet California’s aggressive goals.”
“This is a dangerous idea,” he continued, “since stopping production in California … doesn’t change the underlying demand for fuel to get to work, to make the (products) the state needs.”
Bartsch’s comments put the timely and locally critical oil debate in some of the starkest terms yet heard from the oil industry at a time when activist organizations are ramping up pressure to constrain or eliminate in-state oil production.
Earlier this month a bill requested by Gov. Gavin Newsom last fall was introduced in the state Legislature that would phase out all fracking as well as cyclic steaming and steam and water floods by Jan. 1, 2027. Called Senate Bill 467, the legislation would also establish a new standard buffer zone of 2,500 feet between oil operations and sensitive sites such as homes, schools and parks.
Bartsch said he believes “climate change is real and needs action” but that the dilemma is “how to do it and at what cost.” He noted 2020 may be the fourth consecutive year Aera cut its total emissions.
He outlined a future in which the company plays an important role in helping carry out expensive but effective procedures to remove carbon from the atmosphere and burying it deep underground in Kern County oilfields.
But he also sees demand for gasoline in California continuing for decades. Curtailing in-state supply prematurely, he said, would only shift production to overseas producers with lower environmental standards while taking away vital jobs, government revenues and any shot the state has at energy self-sufficiency.
He said repeated scientific studies in California have found that fracking, which shoots water, sand and chemicals deep underground to free up petroleum, has not contaminated surface water or damaged sources of drinking water.
The buffer proposed as part of AB 467 would cut both ways, he said, in that it would bar development of homes or apartments within 2,500 feet of oil operations, potentially worsening an existing housing crisis.
Capturing airborne carbon and storing it underground is an exciting growth area that builds on Aera’s skills and know-how, he said. It’s also very expensive, he added, noting a Norwegian project costing $800 million just to build removes about 1¼ percent of what California would need to reach its climate goals.
“It’s exciting. But these are big infrastructure projects with significant economic risks,” Bartsch said. He added that oil companies would require a consistent and healthy flow of oil revenues before it could make such an investment.
Bartsch worked as vice president of safety and environment, integrated gas and new energies at Shell before coming to Aera, which is owned by Shell and ExxonMobil. He took over the top job Oct. 1.
The chief executive of the trade group California Independent Petroleum
Association said by email Thursday that Bartsch has the right mix of science and business in his background to produce oil and natural gas while also protecting public health.
CEO Rock Zierman also vouched for Bartsch’s concern.
“As a husband and father, he has shared that what keeps him up at night is that California is heading down a path that isn’t sustainable and leaves people vulnerable to decisions that are made on misinformation and highly charged emotion and not on the basis of sound data and science,” Zierman wrote.
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association trade group, added its view that Bartsch is an “innovator and problem-solver” who believes in the role oil plays “now and in the future” in the local community and California’s economy.
Volunteers from the Kiwanis Club of Westchester in Bakersfield drove up the hill on a foggy Presidents Day, Feb. 15, to help deliver and install American flags to subscribers of the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi Stars and Stripes Display the Flag Project.
Vietnam veterans Larry Laxson and Don Fowler recreated the famous World War II flag installation on Mt. Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. Laxson and Fowler joined Tehachapi Kiwanis Club members and scouts and parents from Scouts BSA Troop 136 to deliver the flags on the first day of the 2021 delivery program.
The teams deliver, install and pick up big, beautiful American flags to homes and businesses on six patriotic holidays for $50.
The next flag delivery day is Memorial Day, Monday, May 31. For information, call Tina Cunningham at 822-4515.
Kiwanis is an international service club dedicated to helping children locally and around the world.