County set to present initial ideas for carbon management park
Innovators, investors, concerned residents and anyone else interested in Kern’s plans to take a leading national role in the field of carbon management are being invited to take part in a public workshop the county is hosting next month.
The online event set for
1:30 p.m. Jan. 18 will offer the closest look yet at the proposed, $100-billion Carbon Management Business Park county leaders hope will become a major component of their campaign to attract money and interest that could eventually help replace oil and gas production as a generator of jobs and tax revenues supporting local public services.
Lorelei Oviatt, director of the agency hosting the event, the Kern
County Planning and Natural Resources Department, said by email the workshop will present the latest thinking on what types of industries might eventually fit into the project, such as hydrogen fuel production and so-called “green cement.”
The park’s primary focus is expected to be carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, in which carbon dioxide is injected deep underground for permanent storage.
The CO2 may be pulled directly from the atmosphere or it may be piped in from other areas — or it may come from industrial processes on-site that would otherwise vent the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
Oviatt noted much about the park remains to be decided, including siting and what steps should be taken to make sure any environmental and public safety impacts are reduced as much as possible.
She said one priority will be to locate the park far from residential areas.
“This is a concept and vision,” she wrote. “The actual location and execution is being left to the private sector and property owners. Once one or more parks are designed by them, they would come to the county and would then consider it through a land use and (environmental review) process.”
While public dollars are expected to supplement huge private investment, so far, the biggest contribution toward developing the park came in March with the U.S. Department of Energy’s pledge of technical assistance to the county.
Kern was one of only 22 communities nationwide to receive such a grant, which did not provide money but an offer of design and other help from federal agencies like the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
By the county’s estimate, the business park will eventually account for 100,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent positions. The sprawling facility is planned to include a photovoltaic solar power array measuring up to 30,000 acres, possibly on former farmland fallowed by the drought and state water restrictions.
The Kern Community College
District and Cal State Bakersfield are expected to participate. Several oil producers have put forward local proposals for carbon management projects.
The company furthest along at this point is Long Beach-based California Resources Corp.: It has secured at least a half-billion dollars in outside investment to help the company establish a CCS operation that would inject into one or more depleted oil reservoirs in Elk Hills.
Such efforts have won support from B3K Prosperity, an economic collaboration working to promote creation of good local jobs.
Justin Salters, the organization’s spokesman, said by email that energy will continue to be one of Kern’s most significant economic sectors, as demonstrated by interest in the carbon management park.