No TerraVault and CarbronFrontier
Frauds in Kern County Communities
Sierra Club
(September 12, 2024) — Every day, while we live and work in Kern County, we are breathing in polluted air. We’re surrounded by oil and gas wells in all directions, most of which are actively pumping fossil fuels and emitting harmful pollutants in the process — and even inactive oil and gas wells pollute! At any moment, we are at the mercy of these wells spilling and making our horrible air quality even worse.
Our community needs less fossil fuel pollution and can’t afford any more risks. And yet, right now, the Kern County Board of Supervisors (BoS) will review two poorly conceived carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects in our region, projects that are not yet regulated by the federal EPA and that would still emit carbon pollution and other contaminants into the air.
We don’t have any room for risky experiments — we need clean air and safe communities now!
The simple truth is: these projects will extend the life of oil production in Kern County for decades to come, delaying California’s needed transition away from fossil fuels.
Additionally, both of the two proposed projects — called TerraVault and CarbronFrontier respectively — require the creation of carbon dioxide pipelines connected between the oil field and the storage site. This fact alone raises serious safety concerns for Lost Hills/ Taft residents living near the storage site and along those pipelines, as leakages or damage to infrastructure could be dangerous to inhale and flammable!
Carbon TerraVault storage system.
But there’s even more to fear. According the projects’ own Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR):
- Air quality will worsen for the duration of these projects: In addition to carbon dioxide, the report anticipates that the projects will emit significant quantities of particulate matter and smog-forming nitrogen oxides, which cause respiratory problems, heart disease, and premature death.
- The impacts on air quality are “significant and unavoidable”: These impacts will befall an area already considered one of the most polluted in the country1
- Threatens Kern County’s fragile water supply: The projects will rely on and compromise an already depleted water source.
- “Carbon dioxide reductions” entirely depend on having enough storage: Enough storage in perpetuity is needed in order to avoid dangerous leaks, which are so noxious they are called “kill zones”.
- We are funding our own pollution: Aera Energy, the project developer, is using taxpayer funding to continue to pollute marginalized communities in Kern to the tune of 85 dollars per ton!
The fossil fuel companies dreaming up these projects are themselves admitting the extent of the damage they will inflict on us — and they don’t care. They know that they can keep polluting our air and get tax payers dollars to foot the bill by receiving large amounts of public funding. These are only some of the reasons why the TerraVault and CarbonFrontier project are a terrible idea and not the direction our community needs to be heading in. It’s up to us to put an end to them.
There are enough roadblocks to a just clean energy future in Kern County and these projects will only make the journey more difficult. Help us create a reality in which we may thrive in a safe and healthy environment!
Thank you for all that you do,
Mercedes Macias, Senior Campaign Organizer, Sierra Club
