A coalition of advocacy groups is suing to block California’s first carbon capture and storage project over allegations that Kern county officials did not properly weigh its environmental risks.
The Committee for a Better Shafter and other community and environmental groups filed a suit last week in state court challenging the Kern County Board of Supervisors’ decision in October to approve the Carbon TerraVault 1 project, which envisions injecting up to 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually in an oil field from natural gas processing, hydrogen plants and other industrial facilities. The California Resources Corp. project, which is roughly 32 miles west of Bakersfield, can store up to 46 million metric tons of CO2 overall.
The oil and gas company’s project is one of six carbon capture and storage or CCS projects in the works across the Golden State.
The challengers are asking the Kern County Superior Court to toss out the board’s approval for Carbon TerraVault, along with the certification of its environmental analysis, called an environmental impact report. They also are calling for the court to require the board to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s version of the National Environmental Policy Act.
