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"content": "\u003cp>One of California’s main oil industry groups is pulling its ballot referendum asking voters whether to keep the state’s oil well buffer law, which bans new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of schools, parks and other neighborhood locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1137\">SB 1137\u003c/a>, was passed in 2022 but was put on hold after the California Independent Oil Association gathered enough signatures for a referendum vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the industry group is abandoning its costly and time-consuming strategy, the law will take effect immediately. CIPA has vowed to sue, however, and could ask a court to put the law on hold while that case progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, environmentalists and advocates celebrated the announcement as a victory and promised to challenge any litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt, the top funder of the campaign in support of the buffer law, said in a statement that it is “time to move ahead and connect public health with the amazing growth industry of renewable energy in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Big Oil spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool voters, using the profits made at the expense of community health, but it was no match for the groundswell of people power and community support we were able to unite all across California,” said Darryl Molina Sarmiento, executive director of Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jonathan Gregory, CIPA’s chairman and CEO of well operator RMX Resources, said in a press release that the industry group was pulling its referendum and pursuing legal action instead because backers of the buffer law “can make unfounded claims in the press and paid advertisements, but they can’t make those claims in court without evidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law, Gregory said, would not only prevent the drilling of new wells but also limit the maintenance of thousands of existing ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He argued it is unconstitutional for California to “illegally take private property, particularly operations that were duly permitted by the government and all impacts mitigated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians do not want to further increase our dependence on expensive foreign crude when California workers can create the energy locally under the strictest regulations in the world,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s Note: \u003c/em>\u003cem>The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Family Foundation is a supporter of KQED. KQED \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/about/who-funds-kqed\">\u003cem>maintains editorial control of its coverage\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and our editorial judgments are made independently — not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is considering a repeal of the region’s first fracking ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County was the first in the Bay Area to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11026152/alameda-county-becomes-first-bay-area-ban-fracking\">halt high-intensity oil and gas operations back in 2016\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, county officials believe those regulations may have been invalidated when the California Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/monterey-county-oil-drilling-18277282.php\">struck down a similar policy in Monterey County last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2016, residents of Monterey County approved Measure Z with 56% of the vote, which prohibited both wastewater injection from oil and gas operations and the drilling of new wells. Community groups pushed for the measure and hoped that it would prevent the use of hydraulic fracturing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron and other fossil fuel industry companies opposed it and later sued the county, which halted enforcement as the issue worked its way through the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August of last year, the state Supreme Court in \u003cem>Chevron USA Inc. v. County of Monterey\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://tmsnrt.rs/47tzc2e\">unanimously sided with the industry groups\u003c/a>, ruling that state regulators, and not local governments, have the authority to regulate the methods for oil and gas extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, supervisors in Alameda County have \u003ca href=\"http://www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_4_1_24/GENERAL%20ADMINISTRATION/Regular%20Calendar/Item_3_Ordinance_repeal_17_06_100_140.pdf\">drafted a repeal of their fracking ban\u003c/a>, which outlines a view that, based on the court ruling, the county’s law “is preempted by state law and should be repealed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The supervisors were scheduled to debate it on Monday during a planning committee hearing but tabled it without discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Centers for Biological Diversity, said the Monterey County court case has had a “chilling effect for local governments because it’s very unclear after the court case what is allowed and what is not allowed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that Alameda County’s ordinance is crafted differently from Measure Z and could still be within local control “because fracking has its own provisions in state law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cities and counties have had decades of oil and gas ordinances on the books, not just Alameda County, but Ventura and Los Angeles,” he said. “All of these [jurisdictions] have had decades worth of regulations. Some banned oil and gas altogether. They are all beginning to take a second look at that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='fracking']Kretzmann said each of the local ordinances should be evaluated independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that reason, his group sponsored \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB3233/id/2966080#:~:text=This%20bill%20would%20authorize%20a,issued%20by%20the%20supervisor%20or\">Assembly Bill 3233\u003c/a>, a new bill allowing local governments to prohibit oil and gas operations, methods, and locations within their jurisdiction. The bill was introduced last month by Democratic Assemblymember Dawn Addis, whose district includes portions of Monterey County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Addis said that pollution from oil and gas production hurts the health of Californians and harms the environment and climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As California transitions away from its dependency on fossil fuels, more cities and counties have introduced ordinances to ban oil and gas operations,” she said. “Assembly Bill 3233 uplifts the voices of our local communities by codifying their right to enact these policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County’s fracking ban was always largely symbolic. When it passed back about eight years ago, the county only had one oil generator, E&B Natural Resources, which didn’t use fracking. That operation has since wound down, and there is no active oil and gas drilling in the county. The company did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kretzmann said Alameda County residents would benefit from the assurances of a fracking ban and similar restrictions on high-intensity oil and gas development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking that off the books after people work so hard to get that in place, understandably makes people nervous about what’s going to happen with the future of Alameda County,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, regulators at the Geologic Energy Management Division have issued a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article285393757.html#storylink=cpy\">draft rule that said they will cease to approve hydraulic fracturing permits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is considering a repeal of the region’s first fracking ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County was the first in the Bay Area to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11026152/alameda-county-becomes-first-bay-area-ban-fracking\">halt high-intensity oil and gas operations back in 2016\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, county officials believe those regulations may have been invalidated when the California Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/monterey-county-oil-drilling-18277282.php\">struck down a similar policy in Monterey County last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2016, residents of Monterey County approved Measure Z with 56% of the vote, which prohibited both wastewater injection from oil and gas operations and the drilling of new wells. Community groups pushed for the measure and hoped that it would prevent the use of hydraulic fracturing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron and other fossil fuel industry companies opposed it and later sued the county, which halted enforcement as the issue worked its way through the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August of last year, the state Supreme Court in \u003cem>Chevron USA Inc. v. County of Monterey\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://tmsnrt.rs/47tzc2e\">unanimously sided with the industry groups\u003c/a>, ruling that state regulators, and not local governments, have the authority to regulate the methods for oil and gas extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, supervisors in Alameda County have \u003ca href=\"http://www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_4_1_24/GENERAL%20ADMINISTRATION/Regular%20Calendar/Item_3_Ordinance_repeal_17_06_100_140.pdf\">drafted a repeal of their fracking ban\u003c/a>, which outlines a view that, based on the court ruling, the county’s law “is preempted by state law and should be repealed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The supervisors were scheduled to debate it on Monday during a planning committee hearing but tabled it without discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Centers for Biological Diversity, said the Monterey County court case has had a “chilling effect for local governments because it’s very unclear after the court case what is allowed and what is not allowed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that Alameda County’s ordinance is crafted differently from Measure Z and could still be within local control “because fracking has its own provisions in state law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cities and counties have had decades of oil and gas ordinances on the books, not just Alameda County, but Ventura and Los Angeles,” he said. “All of these [jurisdictions] have had decades worth of regulations. Some banned oil and gas altogether. They are all beginning to take a second look at that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kretzmann said each of the local ordinances should be evaluated independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that reason, his group sponsored \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB3233/id/2966080#:~:text=This%20bill%20would%20authorize%20a,issued%20by%20the%20supervisor%20or\">Assembly Bill 3233\u003c/a>, a new bill allowing local governments to prohibit oil and gas operations, methods, and locations within their jurisdiction. The bill was introduced last month by Democratic Assemblymember Dawn Addis, whose district includes portions of Monterey County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Addis said that pollution from oil and gas production hurts the health of Californians and harms the environment and climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As California transitions away from its dependency on fossil fuels, more cities and counties have introduced ordinances to ban oil and gas operations,” she said. “Assembly Bill 3233 uplifts the voices of our local communities by codifying their right to enact these policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County’s fracking ban was always largely symbolic. When it passed back about eight years ago, the county only had one oil generator, E&B Natural Resources, which didn’t use fracking. That operation has since wound down, and there is no active oil and gas drilling in the county. The company did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kretzmann said Alameda County residents would benefit from the assurances of a fracking ban and similar restrictions on high-intensity oil and gas development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking that off the books after people work so hard to get that in place, understandably makes people nervous about what’s going to happen with the future of Alameda County,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, regulators at the Geologic Energy Management Division have issued a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article285393757.html#storylink=cpy\">draft rule that said they will cease to approve hydraulic fracturing permits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Releases Formal Proposal to End Fracking in the State",
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"content": "\u003cp>California oil and gas regulators have formally released \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Pages/Oil,-Gas,-and-Geothermal-Rulemaking-and-Laws.aspx\">their plan\u003c/a> to phase out fracking three years after essentially halting new permits for the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Documents/1.%20WST%20Text%20of%20the%20Regulation.pdf\">wrote that they would not approve (PDF)\u003c/a> applications for permits for well stimulation treatments like fracking to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Documents/3.%20WST%20Initial%20Statement%20of%20Reasons.pdf\">prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources (PDF)\u003c/a>” in addition to protecting public health and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/04/23/governor-newsom-takes-action-to-phase-out-oil-extraction-in-california/\">in a statement in 2021\u003c/a> when he initiated regulatory action to phase out new fracking permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydraulic fracturing injects liquids, mostly water, underground at high pressure to extract oil or gas. Oil companies say fracking has been done safely for years under state regulation and that a ban should come from the Legislature, not a state agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Chirag Bhakta, California director, Food & Water Watch\"]‘Fracking is a very dangerous, climate-change-accelerating, water-polluting, earthquake-causing process. … We’re really happy that California is finally taking the formal steps to officially ban some fracking in the state.’[/pullquote]“These things truly exceed the limits of CalGEM’s legal authority,” said Kevin Slagle, vice president of strategy and communications at the Western States Petroleum Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slagle said the policy would include trade-offs for the state’s energy supplies. “They have been rapidly shrinking under this administration. And when you shrink supplies, that typically means higher costs for consumers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, environmental groups say fracking pollutes groundwater and the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fracking is a very dangerous, climate-change-accelerating, water-polluting, earthquake-causing process,” said Chirag Bhakta, California director at the environmental group Food & Water Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really happy that California is finally taking the formal steps to officially ban some fracking in the state,” Bhakta said. But he said the proposed regulations do not address other widely-used well-stimulation methods such as steam injection fracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This move will likely rekindle a longstanding debate over whether to continue producing oil in Kern County, where most of the state’s fracking occurs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Documents/4.%20WST%20Standardized%20Regulatory%20Impact%20Assessment.pdf\">State analysis (PDF)\u003c/a> said the new plan would hurt the county’s economy and significantly lower their property tax revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Maricruz Ramirez, a community organizer with the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, who is based in Kern County, applauded the move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fracking has long posed a threat to public health, clean air, and water. Banning it in California prioritizes communities over the oil industry, especially in Kern County,” Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has not approved fracking permits in the last three years, and oil and gas representatives say the state agency has overstepped its authority and that a ban on fracking should be in the hands of the Legislature instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The public can comment on the proposal until 11:50 p.m. on March 27. Comments can be submitted by email to calgemregulations@conservation.ca.gov or by mail to the Department of Conservation, 715 P Street, MS 19-07 Sacramento, CA 95814, ATTN: Well Stimulation Permitting Phase-Out.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A public hearing will be held at 5:30 p.m. on March 26. You can register \u003ca href=\"https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9zermeFDRJGhlZLJpLZrAA\">here\u003c/a> or join by telephone:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cem>404-443-6397 (English), \u003c/em>\u003cem>877-336-1831 (English), Conf Code: 148676 \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>888-455-1820 (Español), Código: 3167375\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California oil and gas regulators have formally released \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Pages/Oil,-Gas,-and-Geothermal-Rulemaking-and-Laws.aspx\">their plan\u003c/a> to phase out fracking three years after essentially halting new permits for the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Documents/1.%20WST%20Text%20of%20the%20Regulation.pdf\">wrote that they would not approve (PDF)\u003c/a> applications for permits for well stimulation treatments like fracking to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Documents/3.%20WST%20Initial%20Statement%20of%20Reasons.pdf\">prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources (PDF)\u003c/a>” in addition to protecting public health and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/04/23/governor-newsom-takes-action-to-phase-out-oil-extraction-in-california/\">in a statement in 2021\u003c/a> when he initiated regulatory action to phase out new fracking permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydraulic fracturing injects liquids, mostly water, underground at high pressure to extract oil or gas. Oil companies say fracking has been done safely for years under state regulation and that a ban should come from the Legislature, not a state agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“These things truly exceed the limits of CalGEM’s legal authority,” said Kevin Slagle, vice president of strategy and communications at the Western States Petroleum Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slagle said the policy would include trade-offs for the state’s energy supplies. “They have been rapidly shrinking under this administration. And when you shrink supplies, that typically means higher costs for consumers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, environmental groups say fracking pollutes groundwater and the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fracking is a very dangerous, climate-change-accelerating, water-polluting, earthquake-causing process,” said Chirag Bhakta, California director at the environmental group Food & Water Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really happy that California is finally taking the formal steps to officially ban some fracking in the state,” Bhakta said. But he said the proposed regulations do not address other widely-used well-stimulation methods such as steam injection fracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This move will likely rekindle a longstanding debate over whether to continue producing oil in Kern County, where most of the state’s fracking occurs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Documents/4.%20WST%20Standardized%20Regulatory%20Impact%20Assessment.pdf\">State analysis (PDF)\u003c/a> said the new plan would hurt the county’s economy and significantly lower their property tax revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Maricruz Ramirez, a community organizer with the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, who is based in Kern County, applauded the move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fracking has long posed a threat to public health, clean air, and water. Banning it in California prioritizes communities over the oil industry, especially in Kern County,” Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has not approved fracking permits in the last three years, and oil and gas representatives say the state agency has overstepped its authority and that a ban on fracking should be in the hands of the Legislature instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The public can comment on the proposal until 11:50 p.m. on March 27. Comments can be submitted by email to calgemregulations@conservation.ca.gov or by mail to the Department of Conservation, 715 P Street, MS 19-07 Sacramento, CA 95814, ATTN: Well Stimulation Permitting Phase-Out.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A public hearing will be held at 5:30 p.m. on March 26. You can register \u003ca href=\"https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9zermeFDRJGhlZLJpLZrAA\">here\u003c/a> or join by telephone:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cem>404-443-6397 (English), \u003c/em>\u003cem>877-336-1831 (English), Conf Code: 148676 \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>888-455-1820 (Español), Código: 3167375\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Kern County's Carbon Removal Industry Can Save California's Oil Country",
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"content": "\u003cp>Omar Hayat sees the future in a patch of dirt near Bakersfield, California, where oil was discovered more than a century ago. That discovery paved the way for Kern County’s lucrative petroleum industry. Now, Hayat hopes to use the same dirt patch to launch a new business — one that may help California reach its ambitious climate goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to be accepted as a solution,” said Hayat, the executive vice president of operations at California Resources Corporation, one of the state’s leading oil producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hayat is leading the company’s push to store climate-warming carbon more than a mile underground in the cracks and crevices of ancient rock formations. The firm is one of several companies developing plans to capture carbon from oil and gas plants and the air and store it deep beneath California’s oil country at the foot of the San Joaquin Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kern County is betting those projects will make it the center of California’s nascent carbon removal and storage industry. The county is already the state’s largest oil producer and a top producer of agricultural products, but climate change — and the state’s effort to mitigate it — threatens those economic mainstays. The county hopes the new carbon management industry will help make up for the hundreds of millions in tax revenue it anticipates losing by 2045 when California plans to phase out all oil drilling and eliminate most carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our economy is built on oil and agriculture. This is how we keep our libraries open. This is how we provide Meals on Wheels. This is how we provide our services to the million people here,” said Lorelei Oviatt, the county’s director of planning and natural resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late December, Kern and the federal government took steps that could allow CRC to begin capturing and storing carbon next year. The county published its draft environmental review of the company’s project, and the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/intent-issue-class-vi-underground-injection-control-permits-carbon-terravault-jv\">Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to approve\u003c/a> permits to allow CRC to inject carbon under an oil field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kern has found opportunity in renewable energy, becoming the state’s biggest producer of solar and wind energy. But the county’s push for carbon management amounts to a huge experiment — with its economy and community, as well as California’s climate commitments, hanging in the balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://psbweb.kerncounty.com/planning/pdfs/eirs/ctv1/CTV1_DEIR_Vol_1_Ch_1-12_upd.pdf\">900-page environmental assessment (PDF)\u003c/a>, Kern officials determined that CRC’s project is likely to have “significant and unavoidable” impacts on local air quality, even with measures taken to curb emissions. The report also notes the proximity of proposed pipelines to schools and neighborhoods. Those are among several issues likely to be contested when the public begins weighing in on the project this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the county sees carbon management as critical to its future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s existential,” Oviatt said. “What is this place going to look like in 30 years? What’s it going to look like in five?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Enormous Numbers’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In addition to moving quickly towards clean sources of energy, countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_LongerReport.pdf\">will need to remove carbon from the air (PDF)\u003c/a> in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, according to the IPCC, the United Nations panel that assesses the science of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca href=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dbtfcnfij/images/v1700717007/Global-Status-of-CCS-Report-Update-23-Nov/Global-Status-of-CCS-Report-Update-23-Nov.pdf?_i=AA\">41 commercial carbon capture facilities (PDF)\u003c/a> are \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture\">operating worldwide\u003c/a>. Together, they have the capacity to capture much less than 1% of the emissions that countries produce every year — negating annual emissions equivalent to 49 million metric tons of carbon per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, which has positioned itself as a global leader in climate action, wants to pull an unprecedented amount of carbon from the air — 100 million metric tons — by 2045. That represents nearly a quarter of the emissions the state produces today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are enormous numbers, relative to where not just California is today, but where the world is today,” said Michael Wara, director of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the Biden administration is pouring billions into the carbon capture and storage industry, and Kern is racing to get a piece of it. Much of that money goes to regions led by Republican lawmakers who support boosting domestic energy production. Until he resigned from Congress last month, Bakersfield Republican and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy represented much of Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would offer $3.5 billion for companies to demonstrate direct air capture, a process that sucks carbon from the air so that it can be stowed underground. The department recently said it would give $1.2 billion in grants for “Direct Air Capture hubs” in Louisiana and Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal projects proposed in California, all located in the conservative-leaning Central Valley, earned more than $20 million from the pool of federal funding for feasibility and planning studies, including roughly $12 million to a group led in part by CRC, Hayat’s company, and the city of Bakersfield. The amount is small compared to the billions to be disbursed elsewhere but significant enough to continue fueling ambitions in Kern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1991162\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1991162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Omar Hayat, executive vice president of operations at California Resources Corporation. \u003ccite>(Harika Maddala)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several other major oil and gas companies are also racing to launch their own carbon capture facilities in Kern, including Chevron and \u003ca href=\"https://www.aeraenergy.com/responsibility/carbon-frontier/\">Aera Energy\u003c/a>. Though certain details of CRC’s carbon removal proposal have not been made public, its ambitions center on a project called “Carbon TerraVault 1.” The project would be located in the Elk Hills Oil Field, one of the most productive in the nation, near the site where oil was discovered in 1911. The company wants to inject millions of tons of liquefied carbon a mile underground, beginning with carbon dioxide from the oilfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Looking for Hope’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If all of the projects proposed for the county come online, planning director Oviatt said Kern could be home to most of the storage required to achieve the state’s carbon removal goals. Oviatt frames the growth of this industry as inevitable. Even if the projects currently proposed don’t win regulatory approval, she’s confident that more proposals will follow them, she said at a recent public forum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county estimates that the carbon removal industry could generate as much as $64 million per year in tax revenues and create thousands of jobs. Kern envisions much of that money coming from a proposed \u003ca href=\"https://cmbp.kernplanning.com/\">Carbon Management Business Park\u003c/a>, which it sees as a way to bring in emerging climate-friendly industries — including future direct air capture projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the oil industry leaves Kern, more than 16,000 jobs could disappear, and the area’s already-high poverty and unemployment rates could climb. A county-commissioned study estimates the business park could support up to 22,000 permanent jobs, both in carbon removal and adjacent industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s encouraging,” Oviatt said. “We are looking for hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But realizing that vision is dependent on buy-in from the private sector. Oviatt said a handful of companies have expressed interest in the idea, but so far, none have submitted formal applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And community support for the county’s vision is hardly unanimous. At an October county Board of Supervisors meeting, residents and environmental activists expressed concerns about the need for pipelines to carry carbon across the state, which could rupture or leak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also questioned whether the proposed TerraVault and business park would worsen air quality. The American Lung Association consistently ranks Kern County’s air as among the most polluted in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does not make sense to proceed with this park given the current health and air quality conditions in Kern County,” said Emma De La Rosa, an advocate with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other community organizers like Ileana Navarro with the Central California Environmental Justice Network called for greater transparency and questioned the technology’s track record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Projects worldwide have failed to live up to their promise on climate benefits, so why take the risk here in our backyards and in the backyards of already overburdened communities?” the Bakersfield resident asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1991163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1991163\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pumping jacks spread throughout an oilfield in Kern County, California.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The county’s environmental review shows that pipelines carrying carbon dioxide and injection sites are slated to sit within a few miles of a handful of elementary schools and a couple of towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oviatt said that any future project would be located far away from neighborhoods to reduce the health risks to residents. But she was frank about the county’s prospects if a thriving carbon removal industry fails to take off in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re all concerned about our health, but we’re also concerned: Will Kern County survive these policies of the state of California?” Oviatt told the meeting. “I wanted to make sure the community understands that we are at a very, very difficult crossroads.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kern County’s ‘Gift From God’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Carbon can’t be injected and permanently stowed underground just anywhere, but the storage potential in the Central Valley is “a gift from God,” George Peridas, the energy program director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said at an April symposium on carbon management. The San Joaquin Valley is one of about three dozen areas nationwide with the potential to store the climate pollutant, according to assessments by the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s because, in theory, depleted oil and gas fields can make ideal reservoirs for captured carbon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, petroleum companies operating in the region have made billions pumping fossil fuels out of the ground. Now, these same corporations hope to also make money by pumping liquefied carbon back underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just like reconfiguring a Lego set,” Hayat, the oil executive, said. “Instead of using that CO2, for example, for increasing oil and gas production, we’re just putting it away for storage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say it’s not so simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Storing carbon permanently and safely remains a complex technological challenge full of potential pitfalls. Extracting oil is different than ensuring carbon stays buried for thousands of years without leaking, according to Daniel Ress, a staff attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. California already has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023-07-21/state-releases-draft-plan-to-plug-leaky-oil-wells-many-of-them-in-kern-county\">thousands of uncapped oil wells\u003c/a>, many of which are leaking greenhouse gasses and other pollutants into the air. Ress is concerned that carbon stored underground could escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m skeptical that this can be done well in this area where there’s so much oil and gas exploration,” Ress said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, oil companies have almost exclusively injected carbon to extract more oil from the earth. The CEO of Occidental Petroleum — CRC’s former parent company — \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/12/18/carbon-removal-climate-savior-or-distraction-00132266\">said last year\u003c/a> that carbon removal could give the petroleum industry “a license to continue to operate for the next 60, 70, 80 years.” California law prohibits companies from using captured carbon to enhance drilling in the state. Still, some environmentalists like Ress worry that injecting carbon could be used to extend the life of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several major obstacles remain on the path to building and operating carbon capture and storage plants. California has just \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/climate-tech-company-heirloom-opens-us-commercial-carbon-capture-plant-2023-11-09/\">one commercial carbon removal project\u003c/a> in operation. The state has also banned new carbon pipelines until federal regulations are put in place, which could challenge CRC’s ambitious plans. Without pipelines to move the carbon from industrial centers to the vault, the company’s potential customer base is limited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last month, the county and the EPA’s actions boosted CRC’s hope for its TerraVault project. Company president and CEO Francisco Leon called the moves a “significant milestone” in attaining California’s “ambitious climate goals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kern is the first county in the state to assess the environmental risks of a carbon storage project, working on the draft for about a year. Still, CRC’s project is facing a potentially lengthy approval process. The planning commission is expected to vote on the project in March, with a vote from county supervisors likely this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is a collaboration between \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/\">KVPR\u003c/a>, Inside Climate News, the Investigative Editing Corps and Report for America.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\">Inside Climate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The county is already the state’s largest oil producer and a top producer of agricultural products, but climate change — and the state’s effort to mitigate it — threatens those economic mainstays.",
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"description": "The county is already the state’s largest oil producer and a top producer of agricultural products, but climate change — and the state’s effort to mitigate it — threatens those economic mainstays.",
"title": "How Kern County's Carbon Removal Industry Can Save California's Oil Country | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/profile/emma-foehringer-merchant/\"> Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/people/joshua-yeager/\">Joshua Yeager, KVPR\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Omar Hayat sees the future in a patch of dirt near Bakersfield, California, where oil was discovered more than a century ago. That discovery paved the way for Kern County’s lucrative petroleum industry. Now, Hayat hopes to use the same dirt patch to launch a new business — one that may help California reach its ambitious climate goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to be accepted as a solution,” said Hayat, the executive vice president of operations at California Resources Corporation, one of the state’s leading oil producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hayat is leading the company’s push to store climate-warming carbon more than a mile underground in the cracks and crevices of ancient rock formations. The firm is one of several companies developing plans to capture carbon from oil and gas plants and the air and store it deep beneath California’s oil country at the foot of the San Joaquin Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kern County is betting those projects will make it the center of California’s nascent carbon removal and storage industry. The county is already the state’s largest oil producer and a top producer of agricultural products, but climate change — and the state’s effort to mitigate it — threatens those economic mainstays. The county hopes the new carbon management industry will help make up for the hundreds of millions in tax revenue it anticipates losing by 2045 when California plans to phase out all oil drilling and eliminate most carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our economy is built on oil and agriculture. This is how we keep our libraries open. This is how we provide Meals on Wheels. This is how we provide our services to the million people here,” said Lorelei Oviatt, the county’s director of planning and natural resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late December, Kern and the federal government took steps that could allow CRC to begin capturing and storing carbon next year. The county published its draft environmental review of the company’s project, and the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/intent-issue-class-vi-underground-injection-control-permits-carbon-terravault-jv\">Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to approve\u003c/a> permits to allow CRC to inject carbon under an oil field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kern has found opportunity in renewable energy, becoming the state’s biggest producer of solar and wind energy. But the county’s push for carbon management amounts to a huge experiment — with its economy and community, as well as California’s climate commitments, hanging in the balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://psbweb.kerncounty.com/planning/pdfs/eirs/ctv1/CTV1_DEIR_Vol_1_Ch_1-12_upd.pdf\">900-page environmental assessment (PDF)\u003c/a>, Kern officials determined that CRC’s project is likely to have “significant and unavoidable” impacts on local air quality, even with measures taken to curb emissions. The report also notes the proximity of proposed pipelines to schools and neighborhoods. Those are among several issues likely to be contested when the public begins weighing in on the project this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the county sees carbon management as critical to its future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s existential,” Oviatt said. “What is this place going to look like in 30 years? What’s it going to look like in five?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Enormous Numbers’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In addition to moving quickly towards clean sources of energy, countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_LongerReport.pdf\">will need to remove carbon from the air (PDF)\u003c/a> in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, according to the IPCC, the United Nations panel that assesses the science of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca href=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dbtfcnfij/images/v1700717007/Global-Status-of-CCS-Report-Update-23-Nov/Global-Status-of-CCS-Report-Update-23-Nov.pdf?_i=AA\">41 commercial carbon capture facilities (PDF)\u003c/a> are \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture\">operating worldwide\u003c/a>. Together, they have the capacity to capture much less than 1% of the emissions that countries produce every year — negating annual emissions equivalent to 49 million metric tons of carbon per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, which has positioned itself as a global leader in climate action, wants to pull an unprecedented amount of carbon from the air — 100 million metric tons — by 2045. That represents nearly a quarter of the emissions the state produces today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are enormous numbers, relative to where not just California is today, but where the world is today,” said Michael Wara, director of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the Biden administration is pouring billions into the carbon capture and storage industry, and Kern is racing to get a piece of it. Much of that money goes to regions led by Republican lawmakers who support boosting domestic energy production. Until he resigned from Congress last month, Bakersfield Republican and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy represented much of Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would offer $3.5 billion for companies to demonstrate direct air capture, a process that sucks carbon from the air so that it can be stowed underground. The department recently said it would give $1.2 billion in grants for “Direct Air Capture hubs” in Louisiana and Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal projects proposed in California, all located in the conservative-leaning Central Valley, earned more than $20 million from the pool of federal funding for feasibility and planning studies, including roughly $12 million to a group led in part by CRC, Hayat’s company, and the city of Bakersfield. The amount is small compared to the billions to be disbursed elsewhere but significant enough to continue fueling ambitions in Kern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1991162\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1991162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Omar-Hayat-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Omar Hayat, executive vice president of operations at California Resources Corporation. \u003ccite>(Harika Maddala)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several other major oil and gas companies are also racing to launch their own carbon capture facilities in Kern, including Chevron and \u003ca href=\"https://www.aeraenergy.com/responsibility/carbon-frontier/\">Aera Energy\u003c/a>. Though certain details of CRC’s carbon removal proposal have not been made public, its ambitions center on a project called “Carbon TerraVault 1.” The project would be located in the Elk Hills Oil Field, one of the most productive in the nation, near the site where oil was discovered in 1911. The company wants to inject millions of tons of liquefied carbon a mile underground, beginning with carbon dioxide from the oilfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Looking for Hope’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If all of the projects proposed for the county come online, planning director Oviatt said Kern could be home to most of the storage required to achieve the state’s carbon removal goals. Oviatt frames the growth of this industry as inevitable. Even if the projects currently proposed don’t win regulatory approval, she’s confident that more proposals will follow them, she said at a recent public forum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county estimates that the carbon removal industry could generate as much as $64 million per year in tax revenues and create thousands of jobs. Kern envisions much of that money coming from a proposed \u003ca href=\"https://cmbp.kernplanning.com/\">Carbon Management Business Park\u003c/a>, which it sees as a way to bring in emerging climate-friendly industries — including future direct air capture projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the oil industry leaves Kern, more than 16,000 jobs could disappear, and the area’s already-high poverty and unemployment rates could climb. A county-commissioned study estimates the business park could support up to 22,000 permanent jobs, both in carbon removal and adjacent industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s encouraging,” Oviatt said. “We are looking for hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But realizing that vision is dependent on buy-in from the private sector. Oviatt said a handful of companies have expressed interest in the idea, but so far, none have submitted formal applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And community support for the county’s vision is hardly unanimous. At an October county Board of Supervisors meeting, residents and environmental activists expressed concerns about the need for pipelines to carry carbon across the state, which could rupture or leak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also questioned whether the proposed TerraVault and business park would worsen air quality. The American Lung Association consistently ranks Kern County’s air as among the most polluted in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does not make sense to proceed with this park given the current health and air quality conditions in Kern County,” said Emma De La Rosa, an advocate with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other community organizers like Ileana Navarro with the Central California Environmental Justice Network called for greater transparency and questioned the technology’s track record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Projects worldwide have failed to live up to their promise on climate benefits, so why take the risk here in our backyards and in the backyards of already overburdened communities?” the Bakersfield resident asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1991163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1991163\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/01/Oil-Pumps-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pumping jacks spread throughout an oilfield in Kern County, California.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The county’s environmental review shows that pipelines carrying carbon dioxide and injection sites are slated to sit within a few miles of a handful of elementary schools and a couple of towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oviatt said that any future project would be located far away from neighborhoods to reduce the health risks to residents. But she was frank about the county’s prospects if a thriving carbon removal industry fails to take off in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re all concerned about our health, but we’re also concerned: Will Kern County survive these policies of the state of California?” Oviatt told the meeting. “I wanted to make sure the community understands that we are at a very, very difficult crossroads.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kern County’s ‘Gift From God’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Carbon can’t be injected and permanently stowed underground just anywhere, but the storage potential in the Central Valley is “a gift from God,” George Peridas, the energy program director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said at an April symposium on carbon management. The San Joaquin Valley is one of about three dozen areas nationwide with the potential to store the climate pollutant, according to assessments by the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s because, in theory, depleted oil and gas fields can make ideal reservoirs for captured carbon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, petroleum companies operating in the region have made billions pumping fossil fuels out of the ground. Now, these same corporations hope to also make money by pumping liquefied carbon back underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just like reconfiguring a Lego set,” Hayat, the oil executive, said. “Instead of using that CO2, for example, for increasing oil and gas production, we’re just putting it away for storage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say it’s not so simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Storing carbon permanently and safely remains a complex technological challenge full of potential pitfalls. Extracting oil is different than ensuring carbon stays buried for thousands of years without leaking, according to Daniel Ress, a staff attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. California already has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023-07-21/state-releases-draft-plan-to-plug-leaky-oil-wells-many-of-them-in-kern-county\">thousands of uncapped oil wells\u003c/a>, many of which are leaking greenhouse gasses and other pollutants into the air. Ress is concerned that carbon stored underground could escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m skeptical that this can be done well in this area where there’s so much oil and gas exploration,” Ress said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, oil companies have almost exclusively injected carbon to extract more oil from the earth. The CEO of Occidental Petroleum — CRC’s former parent company — \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/12/18/carbon-removal-climate-savior-or-distraction-00132266\">said last year\u003c/a> that carbon removal could give the petroleum industry “a license to continue to operate for the next 60, 70, 80 years.” California law prohibits companies from using captured carbon to enhance drilling in the state. Still, some environmentalists like Ress worry that injecting carbon could be used to extend the life of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several major obstacles remain on the path to building and operating carbon capture and storage plants. California has just \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/climate-tech-company-heirloom-opens-us-commercial-carbon-capture-plant-2023-11-09/\">one commercial carbon removal project\u003c/a> in operation. The state has also banned new carbon pipelines until federal regulations are put in place, which could challenge CRC’s ambitious plans. Without pipelines to move the carbon from industrial centers to the vault, the company’s potential customer base is limited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last month, the county and the EPA’s actions boosted CRC’s hope for its TerraVault project. Company president and CEO Francisco Leon called the moves a “significant milestone” in attaining California’s “ambitious climate goals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kern is the first county in the state to assess the environmental risks of a carbon storage project, working on the draft for about a year. Still, CRC’s project is facing a potentially lengthy approval process. The planning commission is expected to vote on the project in March, with a vote from county supervisors likely this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is a collaboration between \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/\">KVPR\u003c/a>, Inside Climate News, the Investigative Editing Corps and Report for America.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\">Inside Climate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "EPA Aims to Combat Climate Change With New Methane Reduction Rules",
"headTitle": "EPA Aims to Combat Climate Change With New Methane Reduction Rules | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The oil industry has long leaked methane into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse gasses that are warming the planet. Now, new federal rules aim to dramatically reduce that pollution in the next 15 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has issued strict new regulations to reduce methane from oil and gas industry operations. The announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency comes as world leaders are in Dubai for the annual United Nations climate meeting, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalmethanepledge.org/events/methane-cop28\">controlling methane is a big focus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas. It stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than carbon dioxide — the most abundant greenhouse gas from humans. But methane is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane\">much more potent climate-warming gas\u003c/a>. Research shows that even small amounts of methane escaping into the atmosphere can \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/14/1187648553/natural-gas-can-rival-coals-climate-warming-potential-when-leaks-are-counted\">equal the climate-warming effects of burning coal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in a written statement, called the new final rule an “historic action to reduce climate pollution, protecting people and the planet.” He says the regulation is part of President Biden’s ambitious climate change efforts to zero out the country’s greenhouse gasses by 2050 and meet goals in the landmark Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA estimates the new rule will reduce methane emissions nearly 80% below what they were projected to be, and that will “prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038.” The agency says that’s the equivalent climate warming power “as all the carbon dioxide emitted by the power sector in 2021.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA says that over that period, the amount of methane that will be captured or leaks avoided would be enough to heat nearly 8 million American homes for a winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also estimates the final rule will have net financial benefits of at least $7.3 billion a year from 2024 to 2038. Included in that accounting are the cost of deploying new technologies, climate savings, and health benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human-caused methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming today, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/44216/eye_on_methane_summary.pdf?sequence=3\">United Nations Environment Programme\u003c/a>. Most of the methane emitted by humans comes from the energy sector, agriculture and landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule includes a “Super Emitter Program” that allows third parties, including environmental groups, to detect and report large methane releases from oil and gas sites. The EPA says studies show these large emitters account for almost half the methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry is also required to phase out routine natural gas flaring at new oil wells. Drillers often flare or burn gas from the ground with more valuable oil when there isn’t a pipeline nearby to transport the gas to buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule also requires “comprehensive monitoring” for methane leaks from well sites and compressor stations. In addition to regularly inspecting sites, the EPA says oil and gas companies must choose “low-cost and innovative methane monitoring technologies” to detect leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the rule creates standards for reducing emissions from equipment, such as controllers, pumps and storage tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some states already have methane emissions programs. They will now have two years to submit them to EPA for approval to ensure they comply with the new federal regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,” says Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund president, in a statement. EDF is among groups that have established methane monitoring programs, including plans to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2023/08/17/methane-satellite-ball-aerospace-boulder/\">launch a $90 million satellite\u003c/a> to detect methane from oil and gas fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the new rules are aimed at the oil industry, they’re getting praise from some larger companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BP welcomes the finalization of a federal methane rule for new, modified and — for the first time — existing sources,” Orlando Alvarez, chairman and president of BP America, says in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But smaller companies have been critical, fearing increased costs that could make some wells unprofitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry’s largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, says it’s still reviewing the final rule. Earlier this year, API detailed its concerns in \u003ca href=\"https://www.api.org/~/media/files/news/2023/02/13/api-comments-epa-supplemental-proposed-methane-rule\">comments submitted to the EPA\u003c/a>. Among them, API mentioned potential legal issues with using third-party monitors for the “Super Emitter Program.” The group says the EPA “must establish requirements for monitoring of third-party data” and provide limits on how that information is released to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A senior EPA official says the agency made changes based on such comments. The official says now the EPA will certify groups with methane monitoring expertise, assess reports of releases for accuracy, and then notify a responsible company of the release so they can fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear whether that will satisfy API’s concerns, but the comments highlight something many people involved in this rulemaking process assume: the new regulations will likely be challenged in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=EPA+aims+to+slash+the+oil+industry%27s+climate-warming+methane+pollution&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The oil industry has long leaked methane into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse gasses that are warming the planet. Now, new federal rules aim to dramatically reduce that pollution in the next 15 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has issued strict new regulations to reduce methane from oil and gas industry operations. The announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency comes as world leaders are in Dubai for the annual United Nations climate meeting, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalmethanepledge.org/events/methane-cop28\">controlling methane is a big focus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas. It stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than carbon dioxide — the most abundant greenhouse gas from humans. But methane is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane\">much more potent climate-warming gas\u003c/a>. Research shows that even small amounts of methane escaping into the atmosphere can \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/14/1187648553/natural-gas-can-rival-coals-climate-warming-potential-when-leaks-are-counted\">equal the climate-warming effects of burning coal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in a written statement, called the new final rule an “historic action to reduce climate pollution, protecting people and the planet.” He says the regulation is part of President Biden’s ambitious climate change efforts to zero out the country’s greenhouse gasses by 2050 and meet goals in the landmark Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA estimates the new rule will reduce methane emissions nearly 80% below what they were projected to be, and that will “prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038.” The agency says that’s the equivalent climate warming power “as all the carbon dioxide emitted by the power sector in 2021.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA says that over that period, the amount of methane that will be captured or leaks avoided would be enough to heat nearly 8 million American homes for a winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also estimates the final rule will have net financial benefits of at least $7.3 billion a year from 2024 to 2038. Included in that accounting are the cost of deploying new technologies, climate savings, and health benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human-caused methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming today, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/44216/eye_on_methane_summary.pdf?sequence=3\">United Nations Environment Programme\u003c/a>. Most of the methane emitted by humans comes from the energy sector, agriculture and landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule includes a “Super Emitter Program” that allows third parties, including environmental groups, to detect and report large methane releases from oil and gas sites. The EPA says studies show these large emitters account for almost half the methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry is also required to phase out routine natural gas flaring at new oil wells. Drillers often flare or burn gas from the ground with more valuable oil when there isn’t a pipeline nearby to transport the gas to buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule also requires “comprehensive monitoring” for methane leaks from well sites and compressor stations. In addition to regularly inspecting sites, the EPA says oil and gas companies must choose “low-cost and innovative methane monitoring technologies” to detect leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the rule creates standards for reducing emissions from equipment, such as controllers, pumps and storage tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some states already have methane emissions programs. They will now have two years to submit them to EPA for approval to ensure they comply with the new federal regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,” says Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund president, in a statement. EDF is among groups that have established methane monitoring programs, including plans to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2023/08/17/methane-satellite-ball-aerospace-boulder/\">launch a $90 million satellite\u003c/a> to detect methane from oil and gas fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the new rules are aimed at the oil industry, they’re getting praise from some larger companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BP welcomes the finalization of a federal methane rule for new, modified and — for the first time — existing sources,” Orlando Alvarez, chairman and president of BP America, says in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But smaller companies have been critical, fearing increased costs that could make some wells unprofitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry’s largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, says it’s still reviewing the final rule. Earlier this year, API detailed its concerns in \u003ca href=\"https://www.api.org/~/media/files/news/2023/02/13/api-comments-epa-supplemental-proposed-methane-rule\">comments submitted to the EPA\u003c/a>. Among them, API mentioned potential legal issues with using third-party monitors for the “Super Emitter Program.” The group says the EPA “must establish requirements for monitoring of third-party data” and provide limits on how that information is released to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A senior EPA official says the agency made changes based on such comments. The official says now the EPA will certify groups with methane monitoring expertise, assess reports of releases for accuracy, and then notify a responsible company of the release so they can fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear whether that will satisfy API’s concerns, but the comments highlight something many people involved in this rulemaking process assume: the new regulations will likely be challenged in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=EPA+aims+to+slash+the+oil+industry%27s+climate-warming+methane+pollution&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Oil Refineries Release Lots of Water Pollution Near Communities of Color, Data Shows",
"headTitle": "Oil Refineries Release Lots of Water Pollution Near Communities of Color, Data Shows | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Oil refineries release billions of pounds of pollution annually into waterways, and that pollution disproportionately affects people of color, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Refinery-water-pollution-report-EMBARGOED-until-1.26.23.pdf\">new analysis\u003c/a> of Environmental Protection Agency regulatory data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pollution includes heavy metals, nitrogen and other compounds that can kill aquatic animals, feed harmful algae and make waterways dangerous for humans to fish in, swim in or even touch. The pollution affects communities across the country, but is especially concentrated along the Gulf Coast, in California and near Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new findings underscore health and environmental dangers across fossil fuel operations, from the wellhead to pipelines, refineries and consumer use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report was published by the Environmental Integrity Project, an independent watchdog group that routinely analyzes public data collected by the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a highly polluting industry discharging large volumes of wastewater,” says Eric Schaeffer, executive director the Environmental Integrity Project, and former director of the EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report authors examined EPA water pollution data from 2019 to 2021 for 81 major refineries across the country – about two thirds of all refineries operating in the U.S. Refineries are required to tell the government how much pollution they release into waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most refineries included in the analysis reported releasing extra pollution, beyond what they are legally permitted to. But less than a quarter of those with violations were penalized by the EPA, the data show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a chronic problem with enforcement of the [Clean] Water Act,” Schaeffer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ExxonMobil, which operates some of the largest refineries in the country including multiple facilities that the report found are among the largest emitters of key pollutants, declined to comment specifically about its operations. Instead, the company referred NPR to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.afpm.org/issues/environment\">general environmental statement\u003c/a> by the American Fuel & Petroleum Manufacturers trade group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have preserved and protected land and water resources by implementing waste management programs and adhering to federal guidelines that govern effluent discharge, hazardous waste disposal and other priority areas,” the AFPM statement reads. “We have made great progress in environmental stewardship under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and many other environmental regulations, and continue to innovate to evolve our operations and products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Most of the pollution is happening near communities of color\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the U.S., people with less power have consistently been exposed to more pollution, whether it’s excess air pollution from highways and factories, drinking water contamination, exposure to lead paint or polluted lakes and rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That trend shows up clearly in the new report, which finds that the majority of the worst-polluting refineries are located near communities that have lower-than-average income and a higher-than-average proportion of non-White residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A further NPR analysis of the data finds even more stark inequities: some types of water pollution are concentrated overwhelmingly in communities where people of color live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, about three-quarters of the nitrogen, selenium and dissolved solid pollution from oil refineries came from facilities that are surrounded by neighborhoods that are home to people of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA declined to comment on the report or on NPR’s findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new pollution data reinforce what people who live in the shadows of refineries experience every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not surprised at all,” says John Beard, a former city council member in Port Arthur, Texas and current director of the local environmental group the Port Arthur Community Action Network. The Gulf Coast city is crisscrossed by bayous and other waterways, and is home to multiple major refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beard says the pollution is obvious. “You can see the [oil] sheen on the water,” he explains. Sometimes the water smells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is affecting places where some people make their living fishing,” he explains. Others fish recreationally or as a regular source of food, and Beard worries that some aquatic species may not be safe for human consumption if the water is contaminated with heavy metals and other pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many waterways near petrochemical facilities have signs warning residents not to touch or fish in the water, but it can be unclear which areas are safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beard worked for 38 years at petrochemical facilities in the area, and says the supposed economic benefits for local workers – especially Black people and other people of color who live next to the refineries – are outweighed by the costs to human health and the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1981365\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1981365\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"An image of the city of Port Arthur in Texas and oil refineries seen in the background. \" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Port Arthur, Texas is home to several refineries that release pollutants into local waterways. \u003ccite>(Ryan Kellman/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They don’t build these [refineries] in Beverly Hills, or River Oaks or Madison Avenue. They don’t build them in communities of affluence.” he says. Instead communities that have faced generations of systemic racism also live with polluted air and water. “We pay a severe price.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Federal rules about water pollution from oil refineries are outdated\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA’s water pollution regulations for oil refineries were established in 1985 and don’t cover many pollutants, Schaeffer says. In the nearly 40 years since then, there have been major advances in wastewater treatment methods, he argues, and the Clean Water Act requires the agency to update its pollution limits accordingly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody thinks that a rotary phone is the best available technology for making a phone call in 2023,” Schaeffer says. “That same thinking was applied in the Clean Water Act. As treatment methods improve, the standards are supposed to get tighter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, Congress approved a modest increase in the EPA’s budget for enforcement of existing environmental regulations. The EPA has not indicated any plans to update its limits on water pollution from oil refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Oil+refineries+release+lots+of+water+pollution+near+communities+of+color%2C+data+show&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Oil refineries release billions of pounds of pollution into waterways each year, according to regulatory data. NPR found that pollution is concentrated near places where people of color live.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oil refineries release billions of pounds of pollution annually into waterways, and that pollution disproportionately affects people of color, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Refinery-water-pollution-report-EMBARGOED-until-1.26.23.pdf\">new analysis\u003c/a> of Environmental Protection Agency regulatory data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pollution includes heavy metals, nitrogen and other compounds that can kill aquatic animals, feed harmful algae and make waterways dangerous for humans to fish in, swim in or even touch. The pollution affects communities across the country, but is especially concentrated along the Gulf Coast, in California and near Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new findings underscore health and environmental dangers across fossil fuel operations, from the wellhead to pipelines, refineries and consumer use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report was published by the Environmental Integrity Project, an independent watchdog group that routinely analyzes public data collected by the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a highly polluting industry discharging large volumes of wastewater,” says Eric Schaeffer, executive director the Environmental Integrity Project, and former director of the EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report authors examined EPA water pollution data from 2019 to 2021 for 81 major refineries across the country – about two thirds of all refineries operating in the U.S. Refineries are required to tell the government how much pollution they release into waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most refineries included in the analysis reported releasing extra pollution, beyond what they are legally permitted to. But less than a quarter of those with violations were penalized by the EPA, the data show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a chronic problem with enforcement of the [Clean] Water Act,” Schaeffer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ExxonMobil, which operates some of the largest refineries in the country including multiple facilities that the report found are among the largest emitters of key pollutants, declined to comment specifically about its operations. Instead, the company referred NPR to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.afpm.org/issues/environment\">general environmental statement\u003c/a> by the American Fuel & Petroleum Manufacturers trade group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have preserved and protected land and water resources by implementing waste management programs and adhering to federal guidelines that govern effluent discharge, hazardous waste disposal and other priority areas,” the AFPM statement reads. “We have made great progress in environmental stewardship under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and many other environmental regulations, and continue to innovate to evolve our operations and products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Most of the pollution is happening near communities of color\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the U.S., people with less power have consistently been exposed to more pollution, whether it’s excess air pollution from highways and factories, drinking water contamination, exposure to lead paint or polluted lakes and rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That trend shows up clearly in the new report, which finds that the majority of the worst-polluting refineries are located near communities that have lower-than-average income and a higher-than-average proportion of non-White residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A further NPR analysis of the data finds even more stark inequities: some types of water pollution are concentrated overwhelmingly in communities where people of color live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, about three-quarters of the nitrogen, selenium and dissolved solid pollution from oil refineries came from facilities that are surrounded by neighborhoods that are home to people of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA declined to comment on the report or on NPR’s findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new pollution data reinforce what people who live in the shadows of refineries experience every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not surprised at all,” says John Beard, a former city council member in Port Arthur, Texas and current director of the local environmental group the Port Arthur Community Action Network. The Gulf Coast city is crisscrossed by bayous and other waterways, and is home to multiple major refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beard says the pollution is obvious. “You can see the [oil] sheen on the water,” he explains. Sometimes the water smells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is affecting places where some people make their living fishing,” he explains. Others fish recreationally or as a regular source of food, and Beard worries that some aquatic species may not be safe for human consumption if the water is contaminated with heavy metals and other pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many waterways near petrochemical facilities have signs warning residents not to touch or fish in the water, but it can be unclear which areas are safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beard worked for 38 years at petrochemical facilities in the area, and says the supposed economic benefits for local workers – especially Black people and other people of color who live next to the refineries – are outweighed by the costs to human health and the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1981365\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1981365\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"An image of the city of Port Arthur in Texas and oil refineries seen in the background. \" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/01/fema-11_custom-badfa6654d37795d9572c52d7d2d6dfc9ab0bdeb-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Port Arthur, Texas is home to several refineries that release pollutants into local waterways. \u003ccite>(Ryan Kellman/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They don’t build these [refineries] in Beverly Hills, or River Oaks or Madison Avenue. They don’t build them in communities of affluence.” he says. Instead communities that have faced generations of systemic racism also live with polluted air and water. “We pay a severe price.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Federal rules about water pollution from oil refineries are outdated\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA’s water pollution regulations for oil refineries were established in 1985 and don’t cover many pollutants, Schaeffer says. In the nearly 40 years since then, there have been major advances in wastewater treatment methods, he argues, and the Clean Water Act requires the agency to update its pollution limits accordingly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody thinks that a rotary phone is the best available technology for making a phone call in 2023,” Schaeffer says. “That same thinking was applied in the Clean Water Act. As treatment methods improve, the standards are supposed to get tighter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, Congress approved a modest increase in the EPA’s budget for enforcement of existing environmental regulations. The EPA has not indicated any plans to update its limits on water pollution from oil refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Oil+refineries+release+lots+of+water+pollution+near+communities+of+color%2C+data+show&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Slick Business: Texas Oil Company Wants to Use California Clean Energy Credits to Extract More Oil",
"headTitle": "Slick Business: Texas Oil Company Wants to Use California Clean Energy Credits to Extract More Oil | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Occidental Petroleum is seeking to sell credits in California’s transportation carbon market to help finance the construction of what would be the world’s largest industrial carbon dioxide removal plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation would effectively invert what Occidental has done for a century, by taking carbon out of the air and sending it underground, even if on a relatively small scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a twist. Occidental has said it plans to use some or most of the carbon dioxide it captures from the Texas plant to squeeze more petroleum out of the ground, by pumping it into aging oil fields. As a result, the California carbon market, which is meant to help lower the climate emissions of transportation in the state, could supply tens of millions of dollars to help extract more oil, thereby contributing more emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='right' citation='Danny Cullenward, CarbonPlan']‘There’s a holy war brewing in climate politics over these kinds of technologies and whether or not they’re a tool of the oil industry.’[/pullquote]Occidental’s plans raise one of environmental advocates’ biggest concerns about carbon removal technologies: that they will be used by oil companies to delay the far more urgent task of rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels. By allowing companies to sell credits for captured carbon dioxide used to produce oil, some advocates warn, California’s program is poised to do just that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub has said Occidental will expand oil production, rather than curtail it, using captured CO2 to produce what the company is audaciously branding as “net-zero oil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People familiar with Occidental’s plans say that accessing California’s transportation market is critical to financing the “direct air capture” plant, which the company has said would cost up to $1 billion and would initially pull half-a-million metric tons of the greenhouse gas out of the air every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Occidental says it will break ground this year in West Texas, near Odessa. If the project is completed as planned, it would mark a quantum leap for a technology that some scientists and advocates say could play an important role in meeting climate targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressed by a raft of climate disasters, regional and national governments across the globe are rushing to support carbon removal technologies. The bipartisan infrastructure bill that Congress passed last year included $3.5 billion to build direct air capture “hubs.” Meanwhile, New York and Washington, the European Union and others have enacted or are considering a range of possible incentives, from clean-fuel policies like California’s to government procurement programs for carbon dioxide removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some environmental advocates say that many of the policies that are emerging, including California’s clean fuels market and a federal carbon capture tax credit, have been shaped by oil companies to their own advantage, diluting the climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a holy war brewing in climate politics over these kinds of technologies and whether or not they’re a tool of the oil industry,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan, a nonprofit that analyzes the integrity of carbon removal efforts. Cullenward said incentives like California’s are beginning to shape a new field, “and I don’t think it’s an accident that we’re seeing deployment aligned with industry priorities. Deployment is not aligning around pure climate objectives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Getting to ‘net zero’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The case for carbon removal emerged from the uncertain math of climate models. When climate scientists have tried to model pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, nearly all of them have required some degree of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many of the models require billions of tons of carbon removal per year by mid-century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When accounting for sectors like agriculture and long-haul shipping, scientists and governments simply haven’t figured out how to get all the way to zero emissions fast enough. That leaves carbon removal to provide the “net” in “net zero.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few if any scientists or experts think direct air capture technology alone can achieve that scale. Natural carbon removal like reforestation will need to play a large role, and there are a suite of other techniques, like converting waste biomass into charcoal that can be mixed into the soil or tinkering with seawater to enhance its absorption of CO2. But all these approaches have their limits, risks and drawbacks, and increasingly, many people say direct air capture should be part of the mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1979076 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px.png\" alt=\"Graphic titled "How An Oil Company Plans to Pull Carbon from the Air." It's a cartoon overhead view of the plant Occidental proposes building, with arrows and text bubble indicating what the various buildings, silos, etc., do, and how everything is connected.\" width=\"750\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px.png 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px-160x149.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the largest existing direct air capture plant, built by the Swiss start-up Climeworks, which has not partnered with oil companies, removes only 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Even if Occidental can realize its direct air capture ambitions to eventually remove 1 million tons annually at its Texas plant, the benefit would be minuscule on a planetary scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The International Energy Agency has said direct air capture capacity must reach roughly 85 million tons by 2030, a feat that would still represent less than three-tenths of 1% of current global energy-related emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hope, or prayer, is that capacity could rise sharply in the following two decades. By 2050, the Biden administration’s long-term strategy for reaching net-zero emissions is counting on direct air capture and other carbon removal technologies to make up nearly 10% of all emissions cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question now is whether the technology can be pursued in such a way that it doesn’t distract or detract from the urgent task of phasing out fossil fuels. And many advocates warn there’s little hope of achieving that goal if the emerging direct air capture industry is built by oil companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Seeking access to California’s market \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s low-carbon fuel standard, or LCFS, aims to lower the state’s transportation emissions by setting a statewide benchmark for the carbon intensity of its fuels. In order to sell gasoline or diesel, which fall above that mark, a refiner must buy credits, which companies generate by selling low-carbon fuels like biodiesel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2018, oil refineries and biofuels plants also have been allowed to install carbon capture equipment to effectively lower the carbon intensity of their fuels. Direct air capture plants do not need to sell any fuel at all — they can simply generate and sell credits by capturing and storing carbon dioxide. They cannot, however, sell the oil they extract with the CO2 they capture as a low-carbon fuel. Any of these operations can be located outside California, but refiners or biofuels plants must sell their fuel in the state to access its carbon market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The value of the credits fluctuates, but at the beginning of this year they averaged about $170 per metric ton of carbon dioxide, making the market extremely attractive for carbon capture and removal operations looking to cover their costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Zeller, vice president of technology at Occidental’s low-carbon business, said in an interview last month that his company was working with regulators in California to gain access to the LCFS market for the Texas direct air capture plant. He did not elaborate on whether the company plans to sell credits for captured CO2 that is used for oil production, as opposed to pure storage. Occidental declined to answer questions for this article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the LCFS rules are clear: Companies are free to sell credits for carbon removal from the atmosphere, even if the carbon is used to extract more oil, and they are not required to account for the emissions that come from burning that oil when determining how many carbon credits they can sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many environmental advocates say that system undermines the state’s larger climate goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giving a carbon capture project the same number of credits whether or not it helps produce additional oil makes no sense as a climate mitigation or a carbon removal policy,” said Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan, in an email. “It only makes sense as a carbon capture technology subsidy that actively privileges oil and gas production over climate-safe applications.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s equal treatment of carbon dioxide used for so-called “enhanced oil recovery” and that which is just stored is particularly problematic, Cullenward said, because each credit sold in the state represents an additional volume of gasoline or diesel that is burned in its cars and trucks. In other words, the removal comes instead of phasing out some amount of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Martin, director of fuels policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he thinks the state should “adjust” how it treats enhanced oil recovery. Like many environmental advocates who support carbon removal technologies, Martin said their promise is in helping address emissions from certain sectors, like aviation and heavy industry, that are extremely difficult or expensive to reduce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I think it’s also really important not to lose sight of the fact that using these technologies to maximize emissions reduction as we’re transitioning off of petroleum, that’s what makes sense to us, that’s what our analysis supports,” Martin said. “It does not support using these technologies as an alternative to ramping down petroleum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee for California’s Air Resources Board, which administers the LCFS, submitted draft comments recommending that enhanced oil recovery projects be barred from the system, warning that allowing them increases emissions and extends the life of “highly polluting facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Duffy, a staffer at the board’s LCFS program, said in an interview that his agency had developed robust regulations to ensure that carbon dioxide storage is safe and well monitored, even when it is injected in oil fields, but that any emissions that come from the oil produced are “not part of the accounting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Occidental’s grand ambition \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At the CERAWeek energy conference last month in Houston, a couple of dozen men and women hailing mostly from the financial and energy sectors watched as Occidental unveiled a holographic animation of its direct air capture plant. The presentation showed a rectangular perimeter of giant fans sucking in vast volumes of virtual air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has licensed technology from Carbon Engineering, a Canadian direct air capture start-up, that passes air over a mineral-laced liquid, which draws out the carbon. The display showed how this carbonated mineral would then be sent through a series of pipes and towers, which would mix it with another mineral before processing and heating it to eventually produce a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979112\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1979112\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-800x596.png\" alt=\"An rendering of a plant to capture carbon from the air shows a long brown building running across the foreground, with large round fans inset along the roof of the building. The ground is brown and the sky is pale blue with puffy clouds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"596\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-800x596.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-1020x760.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-160x119.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-768x572.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage.png 1062w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rendering of a planned direct air capture plant in Texas that would initially pull 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air annually. Occidental Petroleum, which is planning to build the plant, would use some or most of the carbon dioxide it captures to pump more oil out of depleted reservoirs. \u003ccite>(Carbon Engineering)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The plant would be powered with a combination of renewable energy, generated specifically for its operation, and natural gas. Carbon Engineering’s designs include equipment to capture the emissions from burning the natural gas as part of the plant’s operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That morning, Hollub, Occidental’s CEO, told a ballroom full of people at the annual energy industry conference that “initially, this was solely a business focus for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s oil fields in the Permian Basin, beneath Texas and New Mexico, still hold about 2 billion barrels of oil, she said, but in order to pump the oil to the surface, Occidental must inject carbon dioxide into the reservoir to increase its pressure. That carbon dioxide had generally been mined from naturally occurring underground pools, but about a dozen years ago, Hollub said, they realized those pools were drying up. “There wasn’t sufficient CO2 to help us develop all of those reserves,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps carbon capture offered a solution, she recalled. Technologies to extract carbon dioxide from exhaust plumes had been used by industry for decades, and more recently, some scientists and companies had begun experimenting with ways to pull the gas straight from the air. Even when it is injected in oil fields, the vast majority of the carbon dioxide can be locked away underground, if it is monitored properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For both approaches, the chief obstacle to scaling the technology is not technical but financial, so Occidental set about trying to help tip the scales, and in 2018, two key pieces fell into place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, Congress passed an expansion of a federal tax credit for carbon capture and storage, which Hollub said her company worked on with then-Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat and the bill’s sponsor. And in California, state regulators began allowing carbon capture and direct air capture plants to begin accessing its low-carbon fuels market, even if they were located outside the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both changes drew lobbying and support from Occidental and other oil companies. And because carbon capture or direct air capture projects can combine, or “stack,” the two credits, a new market emerged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To underscore the importance of the 2018 federal tax credit to his business, Zeller, the vice president at Occidental’s low-carbon business, told a CERAWeek panel, “That’s the reason I’m here today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a call with investors late last month, Hollub and other executives said the company would build 70 direct air capture plants by 2035. But central to this plan is a strategy to produce what Occidental calls “net-zero oil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, nearly all of the carbon dioxide injected for enhanced oil recovery can remain underground if it is monitored properly, and experts say it is possible to store more carbon dioxide than is emitted by the oil that’s produced. Compared to a conventional barrel of oil, the life-cycle emissions are substantially lower, and Hollub has made a spirited case for the environmental benefits of oil pumped with captured CO2, saying it is better than drilling new fields with new infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a March interview, Zeller said the company’s position has evolved, from focusing almost purely on producing oil to being open to other uses for the carbon dioxide. If a customer is willing to pay a premium to inject carbon dioxide for pure storage, he said, “sure, OK, we’ll do that.” If companies want to buy CO2 to make synthetic fuel, he said, “sure, no problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Zeller made it clear that Occidental’s plans haven’t strayed from oil, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to be listening to the market, and people aren’t ready for net-zero oil, really, they’re not,” he said, adding, “They will be, because it is going to be a high-value, low-cost answer, and people just need to get past the emotions of it, and they will. They have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last three weeks, Occidental has announced a flurry of activity around its direct air capture plans. Airbus, the European airplane manufacturer, said it would buy credits to remove 100,000 metric tons per year for four years from the Texas plant, coming on top of investments by United Airlines, Shopify and others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One week later, Occidental announced a deal with a South Korean refiner to buy up to 200,000 barrels of oil squeezed out of the ground with CO2 captured by the Texas plant. In a press release, the companies boasted of a milestone in emissions reduction efforts, an “affordable, scalable” way to work toward their own climate goals, by buying and selling net-zero oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pVpuCW682XuzAGmkurLDvW?domain=insideclimatenews.org\">\u003cem>InsideClimate News\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/bJVSCXDM32FBx0oJiEwEOr?domain=insideclimatenews.org\">Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003cem>here.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The oil company plans on removing carbon from the atmosphere and pumping it into the ground to extract more oil in the Permian Basin. Climate activists fear the fossil fuel industry will use this new technology as a cover for continuing to sell oil.",
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"description": "The oil company plans on removing carbon from the atmosphere and pumping it into the ground to extract more oil in the Permian Basin. Climate activists fear the fossil fuel industry will use this new technology as a cover for continuing to sell oil.",
"title": "Slick Business: Texas Oil Company Wants to Use California Clean Energy Credits to Extract More Oil | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Occidental Petroleum is seeking to sell credits in California’s transportation carbon market to help finance the construction of what would be the world’s largest industrial carbon dioxide removal plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation would effectively invert what Occidental has done for a century, by taking carbon out of the air and sending it underground, even if on a relatively small scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a twist. Occidental has said it plans to use some or most of the carbon dioxide it captures from the Texas plant to squeeze more petroleum out of the ground, by pumping it into aging oil fields. As a result, the California carbon market, which is meant to help lower the climate emissions of transportation in the state, could supply tens of millions of dollars to help extract more oil, thereby contributing more emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘There’s a holy war brewing in climate politics over these kinds of technologies and whether or not they’re a tool of the oil industry.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Occidental’s plans raise one of environmental advocates’ biggest concerns about carbon removal technologies: that they will be used by oil companies to delay the far more urgent task of rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels. By allowing companies to sell credits for captured carbon dioxide used to produce oil, some advocates warn, California’s program is poised to do just that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub has said Occidental will expand oil production, rather than curtail it, using captured CO2 to produce what the company is audaciously branding as “net-zero oil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People familiar with Occidental’s plans say that accessing California’s transportation market is critical to financing the “direct air capture” plant, which the company has said would cost up to $1 billion and would initially pull half-a-million metric tons of the greenhouse gas out of the air every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Occidental says it will break ground this year in West Texas, near Odessa. If the project is completed as planned, it would mark a quantum leap for a technology that some scientists and advocates say could play an important role in meeting climate targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressed by a raft of climate disasters, regional and national governments across the globe are rushing to support carbon removal technologies. The bipartisan infrastructure bill that Congress passed last year included $3.5 billion to build direct air capture “hubs.” Meanwhile, New York and Washington, the European Union and others have enacted or are considering a range of possible incentives, from clean-fuel policies like California’s to government procurement programs for carbon dioxide removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some environmental advocates say that many of the policies that are emerging, including California’s clean fuels market and a federal carbon capture tax credit, have been shaped by oil companies to their own advantage, diluting the climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a holy war brewing in climate politics over these kinds of technologies and whether or not they’re a tool of the oil industry,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan, a nonprofit that analyzes the integrity of carbon removal efforts. Cullenward said incentives like California’s are beginning to shape a new field, “and I don’t think it’s an accident that we’re seeing deployment aligned with industry priorities. Deployment is not aligning around pure climate objectives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Getting to ‘net zero’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The case for carbon removal emerged from the uncertain math of climate models. When climate scientists have tried to model pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, nearly all of them have required some degree of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many of the models require billions of tons of carbon removal per year by mid-century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When accounting for sectors like agriculture and long-haul shipping, scientists and governments simply haven’t figured out how to get all the way to zero emissions fast enough. That leaves carbon removal to provide the “net” in “net zero.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few if any scientists or experts think direct air capture technology alone can achieve that scale. Natural carbon removal like reforestation will need to play a large role, and there are a suite of other techniques, like converting waste biomass into charcoal that can be mixed into the soil or tinkering with seawater to enhance its absorption of CO2. But all these approaches have their limits, risks and drawbacks, and increasingly, many people say direct air capture should be part of the mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1979076 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px.png\" alt=\"Graphic titled "How An Oil Company Plans to Pull Carbon from the Air." It's a cartoon overhead view of the plant Occidental proposes building, with arrows and text bubble indicating what the various buildings, silos, etc., do, and how everything is connected.\" width=\"750\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px.png 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage750px-160x149.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the largest existing direct air capture plant, built by the Swiss start-up Climeworks, which has not partnered with oil companies, removes only 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Even if Occidental can realize its direct air capture ambitions to eventually remove 1 million tons annually at its Texas plant, the benefit would be minuscule on a planetary scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The International Energy Agency has said direct air capture capacity must reach roughly 85 million tons by 2030, a feat that would still represent less than three-tenths of 1% of current global energy-related emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hope, or prayer, is that capacity could rise sharply in the following two decades. By 2050, the Biden administration’s long-term strategy for reaching net-zero emissions is counting on direct air capture and other carbon removal technologies to make up nearly 10% of all emissions cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question now is whether the technology can be pursued in such a way that it doesn’t distract or detract from the urgent task of phasing out fossil fuels. And many advocates warn there’s little hope of achieving that goal if the emerging direct air capture industry is built by oil companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Seeking access to California’s market \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s low-carbon fuel standard, or LCFS, aims to lower the state’s transportation emissions by setting a statewide benchmark for the carbon intensity of its fuels. In order to sell gasoline or diesel, which fall above that mark, a refiner must buy credits, which companies generate by selling low-carbon fuels like biodiesel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2018, oil refineries and biofuels plants also have been allowed to install carbon capture equipment to effectively lower the carbon intensity of their fuels. Direct air capture plants do not need to sell any fuel at all — they can simply generate and sell credits by capturing and storing carbon dioxide. They cannot, however, sell the oil they extract with the CO2 they capture as a low-carbon fuel. Any of these operations can be located outside California, but refiners or biofuels plants must sell their fuel in the state to access its carbon market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The value of the credits fluctuates, but at the beginning of this year they averaged about $170 per metric ton of carbon dioxide, making the market extremely attractive for carbon capture and removal operations looking to cover their costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Zeller, vice president of technology at Occidental’s low-carbon business, said in an interview last month that his company was working with regulators in California to gain access to the LCFS market for the Texas direct air capture plant. He did not elaborate on whether the company plans to sell credits for captured CO2 that is used for oil production, as opposed to pure storage. Occidental declined to answer questions for this article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the LCFS rules are clear: Companies are free to sell credits for carbon removal from the atmosphere, even if the carbon is used to extract more oil, and they are not required to account for the emissions that come from burning that oil when determining how many carbon credits they can sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many environmental advocates say that system undermines the state’s larger climate goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giving a carbon capture project the same number of credits whether or not it helps produce additional oil makes no sense as a climate mitigation or a carbon removal policy,” said Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan, in an email. “It only makes sense as a carbon capture technology subsidy that actively privileges oil and gas production over climate-safe applications.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s equal treatment of carbon dioxide used for so-called “enhanced oil recovery” and that which is just stored is particularly problematic, Cullenward said, because each credit sold in the state represents an additional volume of gasoline or diesel that is burned in its cars and trucks. In other words, the removal comes instead of phasing out some amount of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Martin, director of fuels policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he thinks the state should “adjust” how it treats enhanced oil recovery. Like many environmental advocates who support carbon removal technologies, Martin said their promise is in helping address emissions from certain sectors, like aviation and heavy industry, that are extremely difficult or expensive to reduce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I think it’s also really important not to lose sight of the fact that using these technologies to maximize emissions reduction as we’re transitioning off of petroleum, that’s what makes sense to us, that’s what our analysis supports,” Martin said. “It does not support using these technologies as an alternative to ramping down petroleum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee for California’s Air Resources Board, which administers the LCFS, submitted draft comments recommending that enhanced oil recovery projects be barred from the system, warning that allowing them increases emissions and extends the life of “highly polluting facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Duffy, a staffer at the board’s LCFS program, said in an interview that his agency had developed robust regulations to ensure that carbon dioxide storage is safe and well monitored, even when it is injected in oil fields, but that any emissions that come from the oil produced are “not part of the accounting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Occidental’s grand ambition \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At the CERAWeek energy conference last month in Houston, a couple of dozen men and women hailing mostly from the financial and energy sectors watched as Occidental unveiled a holographic animation of its direct air capture plant. The presentation showed a rectangular perimeter of giant fans sucking in vast volumes of virtual air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has licensed technology from Carbon Engineering, a Canadian direct air capture start-up, that passes air over a mineral-laced liquid, which draws out the carbon. The display showed how this carbonated mineral would then be sent through a series of pipes and towers, which would mix it with another mineral before processing and heating it to eventually produce a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979112\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1979112\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-800x596.png\" alt=\"An rendering of a plant to capture carbon from the air shows a long brown building running across the foreground, with large round fans inset along the roof of the building. The ground is brown and the sky is pale blue with puffy clouds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"596\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-800x596.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-1020x760.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-160x119.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage-768x572.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/04/DirectAirCaptureStorage.png 1062w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rendering of a planned direct air capture plant in Texas that would initially pull 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air annually. Occidental Petroleum, which is planning to build the plant, would use some or most of the carbon dioxide it captures to pump more oil out of depleted reservoirs. \u003ccite>(Carbon Engineering)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The plant would be powered with a combination of renewable energy, generated specifically for its operation, and natural gas. Carbon Engineering’s designs include equipment to capture the emissions from burning the natural gas as part of the plant’s operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That morning, Hollub, Occidental’s CEO, told a ballroom full of people at the annual energy industry conference that “initially, this was solely a business focus for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s oil fields in the Permian Basin, beneath Texas and New Mexico, still hold about 2 billion barrels of oil, she said, but in order to pump the oil to the surface, Occidental must inject carbon dioxide into the reservoir to increase its pressure. That carbon dioxide had generally been mined from naturally occurring underground pools, but about a dozen years ago, Hollub said, they realized those pools were drying up. “There wasn’t sufficient CO2 to help us develop all of those reserves,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps carbon capture offered a solution, she recalled. Technologies to extract carbon dioxide from exhaust plumes had been used by industry for decades, and more recently, some scientists and companies had begun experimenting with ways to pull the gas straight from the air. Even when it is injected in oil fields, the vast majority of the carbon dioxide can be locked away underground, if it is monitored properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For both approaches, the chief obstacle to scaling the technology is not technical but financial, so Occidental set about trying to help tip the scales, and in 2018, two key pieces fell into place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, Congress passed an expansion of a federal tax credit for carbon capture and storage, which Hollub said her company worked on with then-Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat and the bill’s sponsor. And in California, state regulators began allowing carbon capture and direct air capture plants to begin accessing its low-carbon fuels market, even if they were located outside the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both changes drew lobbying and support from Occidental and other oil companies. And because carbon capture or direct air capture projects can combine, or “stack,” the two credits, a new market emerged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To underscore the importance of the 2018 federal tax credit to his business, Zeller, the vice president at Occidental’s low-carbon business, told a CERAWeek panel, “That’s the reason I’m here today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a call with investors late last month, Hollub and other executives said the company would build 70 direct air capture plants by 2035. But central to this plan is a strategy to produce what Occidental calls “net-zero oil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, nearly all of the carbon dioxide injected for enhanced oil recovery can remain underground if it is monitored properly, and experts say it is possible to store more carbon dioxide than is emitted by the oil that’s produced. Compared to a conventional barrel of oil, the life-cycle emissions are substantially lower, and Hollub has made a spirited case for the environmental benefits of oil pumped with captured CO2, saying it is better than drilling new fields with new infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a March interview, Zeller said the company’s position has evolved, from focusing almost purely on producing oil to being open to other uses for the carbon dioxide. If a customer is willing to pay a premium to inject carbon dioxide for pure storage, he said, “sure, OK, we’ll do that.” If companies want to buy CO2 to make synthetic fuel, he said, “sure, no problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Zeller made it clear that Occidental’s plans haven’t strayed from oil, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to be listening to the market, and people aren’t ready for net-zero oil, really, they’re not,” he said, adding, “They will be, because it is going to be a high-value, low-cost answer, and people just need to get past the emotions of it, and they will. They have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last three weeks, Occidental has announced a flurry of activity around its direct air capture plans. Airbus, the European airplane manufacturer, said it would buy credits to remove 100,000 metric tons per year for four years from the Texas plant, coming on top of investments by United Airlines, Shopify and others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One week later, Occidental announced a deal with a South Korean refiner to buy up to 200,000 barrels of oil squeezed out of the ground with CO2 captured by the Texas plant. In a press release, the companies boasted of a milestone in emissions reduction efforts, an “affordable, scalable” way to work toward their own climate goals, by buying and selling net-zero oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pVpuCW682XuzAGmkurLDvW?domain=insideclimatenews.org\">\u003cem>InsideClimate News\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/bJVSCXDM32FBx0oJiEwEOr?domain=insideclimatenews.org\">Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003cem>here.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant ",
"headTitle": "A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='right' citation='Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer, Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board']‘The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately.’[/pullquote]The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GSI did not tell water board officials about its ties to the oil industry, which shared the roughly $3.4 million in costs for the firm’s studies and related work with the water districts that benefit from the distribution of wastewater from oil extraction, known as “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One member of the board’s Food Safety Expert Panel that reviewed GSI’s studies was nominated by Chevron and initially paid by the oil industry, and a second panel member worked as a consultant for an oil company selling produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the expert panel’s own review concluded that GSI’s studies could not answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='left' citation='Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney, Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Law Institute']‘This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes.’[/pullquote]Thomas Borch of Colorado State University, a leading expert on treating and reusing produced water for crop irrigation who was not involved in the project, said that based on the data GSI had and the way they designed the experiments, “they were not able to draw the conclusions they did. Period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, said in a statement via email that his firm agreed with the water board that the studies were performed in “the most technically sound manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay Rodgers, the water board official who oversaw the Food Safety Project, said he promised the board that if any evidence were ever discovered that produced water was harming people consuming crops, “we would stop it immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the water board’s direction, GSI compiled a list of hundreds of chemicals used in oil operations, then focused on those that might pose health risks. But an absence of information to assess safety dogged the project from the start. Many of the chemicals had never been studied before, or lacked critical details about their use, the board’s panel of experts noted, because the oil companies said doing so would reveal trade secrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Already there was a data gap there because some of those chemicals don’t have reliable toxicity information,” said John Fleming, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings of the board and its expert panel found no food safety or public health concern, said David Ansolabehere, general manager of the Cawelo Water District, which has taken produced water from Chevron for decades. “Cawelo will continue to test the water based on the regional board’s permit requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978392\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978392\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"White steam rises off gray water at a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron's Kern River Oil Field. In the foreground and behind the oval reservoir are brown fields. A long pipeline extends from the far right of the photo to the edge of the reservoir.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steam rises from a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field. Chevron treats the wastewater, then transfers it via pipeline to the reservoir, where it’s blended with surface water and/or groundwater and sent to irrigation canals. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron tested for all additives used in the Kern River field for which a testing method approved by the Environmental Protection Agency exists, said Jonathan Harshman, communications advisor for Chevron’s San Joaquin Valley Business Unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet more than a fifth of the chemicals GSI identified — and 60% of those deemed most likely to pose a health risk — lacked both toxicity information and approved testing methods. The water board conceded that the data gaps left “potentially significant unknowns” about the chemicals’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they say this is safe,” Fleming said, “it’s based on what chemicals they were able to test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means the “no identifiable increased health risks” assertion applies to just a fraction of potential chemicals in produced water applied to crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Oil’s profligate water use\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In early August, during one of the driest summers on record, Wasco farmer Nate Siemens received a troubling notice from his irrigation district, which is regulated by the Central Valley water board. “Please be aware that this water includes some amount of reclaimed oilfield production water,” it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978401\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978401\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Almond farmer Nate Siemens stands in front of a large tree on his farm. He's wearing a red and black plaid shirt over a black hoodie, and a silver and gold ball cap. Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family's Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry's wastewater.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family’s Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry’s wastewater. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross, Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant with the Rodale Institute, was shocked. Siemens needed that water. But he’s transitioning his family’s Fat Uncle Farms to organic and wasn’t keen on using the oil industry’s wastewater to irrigate his almonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s farming roots in the region predate the rise of Kern County’s oil industry, which produces more than 70% of the state’s oil. He was well aware that climate-polluting pump jacks operate among corporate farms growing miles of water-intensive almonds and pistachios, California’s most valuable export crops. But he had no idea just how entrenched oil operations had become in \u003ca href=\"http://www.kernag.com/caap/crop-reports/crop20_29/crop2020.pdf\">the county’s $7.6 billion agricultural industry\u003c/a> until he received that notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 miles southeast of Siemens’s farm, thousands of densely packed pump jacks stretch as far as the eye can see toward the horizon, bobbing robotically as they suck oil and water from wells carved into the denuded landscape of the Kern River Oil Field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pump jacks have pried more than 2 billion barrels from the field since oil was discovered here in 1899. But wresting Kern’s notoriously viscous crude from receding oil reserves requires injecting ever increasing amounts of water and hot steam underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png 650w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst-160x170.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nThat water returns to the surface along with groundwater. The mixture contains arsenic, uranium and other naturally occurring toxic elements, along with potentially hundreds of chemicals used in the extraction process. Since 1985, the ratio of water to oil recovered has more than doubled, from seven barrels of water per barrel of oil to 18 barrels today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a region with less than nine inches of rain in a normal year — the definition of a desert — getting enough water is a perennial concern. Nearly 30 years ago, Chevron struck what a former Cawelo Water District manager called a “win-win” deal to deliver some of the massive amounts of wastewater produced every day to farmers’ fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, more than 38,000 acre-feet of produced water from Chevron and other oil companies hydrates California farmland, including roughly 11% of Kern County’s irrigated farmland. That’s enough to cover about 38,000 football fields with a foot of water, or more than 12.4 billion gallons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978379\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater-160x143.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nChevron treats produced water from its Kern River Oil Field by removing oil from water through gravity separation, then skimming off solids and residual oil before filtering it through walnut hulls. The water then travels several miles by pipeline to a Cawelo holding pond, where it’s blended with surface and groundwater and sent to irrigation canals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first time Seth Shonkoff, a public health scientist with the nonprofit Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers (PSE) for Healthy Energy and a member of the expert panel, visited the Cawelo holding pond several years ago, he smelled an “extraordinarily strong” whiff of asphalt and crude oil. The same odors were much less offensive when he visited the pond with the panel a few years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either there’s natural variability in the water, Shonkoff said, or someone did something different before experts came to evaluate the operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='right' citation='Thomas Borch, Colorado State University']‘We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it. We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.’[/pullquote]Chevron claims that recycling produced water for irrigation allows the company to operate in a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/stories/protecting-the-environment\">sustainable manner\u003c/a>,” by minimizing reliance on fresh water. Yet the massive energy requirements of the extraction process make Kern’s oil one of the world’s most climate-polluting fossil fuels, and Chevron one of California’s top greenhouse gas emitters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has this green reputation, but if you scratch the surface on the oil industry in the state, you quickly discover that that’s not the case at all,” said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes,” Kretzmann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Unfit for purpose \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Central Valley water board said it focused on crops grown in oil wastewater to address public concerns, which included petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, protests outside the state Capitol and a bill to label food grown with the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced the bill in 2015, after learning that farmers could get organic certification for shunning pesticides while using produced water, and consumers would never know. “I thought that was a real problem,” said Gatto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same year, \u003ca href=\"https://sd10.senate.ca.gov/news/2015-03-06-threat-groundwater-posed-improperly-sited-oil-injection-wells-be-explored-senate\">legislators called hearings\u003c/a> to increase scrutiny of oil companies after learning their practices posed risks to protected groundwater, including potential drinking water and irrigation supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately,” said Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, who oversaw the Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testing crops for harmful chemicals to figure out whether they’re safe to eat may seem logical, but techniques to analyze food for oil-related chemicals are “light years” behind those for detecting the compounds in water and soil, Shonkoff said. He raised the problem repeatedly at panel meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, the panel agreed. Its first recommendation to the board was to discontinue crop sampling. It would be far more productive to focus on produced water and irrigated soil, the panel said, using approaches that can reveal the toxicity of the water and soil itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Shonkoff said, “most of the work that was done to test things for chemicals was done in food. Unfortunately, that was, in my professional opinion, a pretty big waste of time and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data GSI compiled — including the list of chemicals and their hazard profiles — was “way too limited” to draw conclusions about lack of toxicity, said Borch, the Colorado State University professor and produced water expert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t mean it’s toxic,” said Borch. But there was no way they could conclude that produced water posed no identifiable health risks based on the data they had and their experimental approach, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978406\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978406\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg\" alt='A sign is posted behind a chain link fence, protected with strands of barbed wire. The sign, in Spanish and English, reads \"Danger. Hot Water. Keep Away.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chevron relies on steam injections to extract Kern County’s tarry crude oil from aging formations, then sends the hot wastewater north to the Cawelo Water District via pipeline. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That leaves Siemens, who’s transitioning to organic, in a tough spot. Although produced water isn’t specifically defined under organic standards, organic farmers can’t use water that contains arsenic, a constituent of Kern’s produced water, and most synthetic compounds, like those used in oil and gas operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens stopped watering his orchard for a few weeks after his district notified him about the produced water. “And the trees suffered,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the almond harvest approached, Siemens couldn’t risk losing the trees. He used just enough of the water to keep them alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t know what we were getting into,” he said. “We just didn’t have time to do the research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Siemens had done the research, it might not have mattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it,” said Borch. “We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A failure to disclose\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest hurdles to evaluating the safety of produced water has been oil companies’ unwillingness to reveal key details about the chemicals they put down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before joining the panel, Shonkoff was working on an independent study of fracking for the California Council on Science and Technology, or CCST, when he discovered a dataset he’d never seen before: a list of chemicals used in conventional oil development, from fields in Southern California. At the time, no other location in the country, and maybe the world, required chemical disclosure for conventional operations. The CCST assessment, commissioned by the state, revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://ccst.us/wp-content/uploads/2015SB4-v2ES.pdf\">testing and treatment of produced water used for irrigation might not remove or even detect chemical\u003c/a>s used in fracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During fracking, operators inject a high-pressure mixture of water, chemicals and sand deep underground to break and then prop open surrounding rock to extract oil or gas. Conventional operations, by contrast, inject high-pressure steam to loosen gooey oil. Wastewater from both conventional and fracking operations falls under the heading of “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Shonkoff dug into the newfound data, and read the permits and regulations for Kern County’s produced water, he realized Chevron and other oil companies could put nearly any additives they wanted down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the water board prohibits using water from fracked wells for irrigation, fracking and conventional operations employ many of the same chemicals, Shonkoff told the board at the panel’s first public meeting. And most compounds used in conventional extraction processes in Kern County, he said, lack the information needed to assess safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s imperative that oil companies disclose not just which chemicals they use in oil and gas production but also the volume and frequency of their use, Shonkoff said. Until then, he said, “I’m not quite sure that we can say with any real level of certainty that this is safe or unsafe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers of the water board said he’d obtained a list of all the chemical compounds oil companies use. But to avoid trade secret information, he said, the board could not get the recipe, which details how often a chemical is used and how much goes down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers said he felt the highest priority was to get a list he could share with the panel members and the public and compensated for not getting the recipe by assuming all the chemicals were used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But knowing the hazard associated with a chemical depends on knowing that recipe, the panel concluded. It also requires knowing chemicals’ breakdown products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemicals are injected under intense heat and pressure into oil reservoirs, where they interact with scores of other compounds, before they’re pulled back to the surface and exposed to air. All these conditions can affect a chemical’s toxicity. And scientists have no good tools to understand how chemical interactions increase toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This assumption that we should be looking for the chemicals that were added to oil and gas operations, and the assumption that they will continue to be those same chemicals after all the processes that they go through, is too big of a leap to make,” Shonkoff said. “Of course, you’re not going to find them, because they most certainly have transformed into other types of chemical constituents by the time things are being monitored and tested for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some chemical additives might degrade into harmless substances, but others can prove more toxic. Shonkoff pointed to glutaraldehyde, a chemical widely used to kill microorganisms that gum up oil and gas extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glutaraldehyde is toxic to people, he said. Some of its breakdown products are even more toxic, some are less toxic and others are completely unknown because they haven’t been studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re talking about hundreds of chemicals, many of which we don’t have good toxicological information on,” Shonkoff said, “the idea that you can really understand the toxicological dimensions of their daughter products, and their transformation products in the presence of other chemicals, is outstripping what we know scientifically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a plant’s own metabolism can affect a chemical’s toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plants could take up chemicals in one form and turn them into something else that’s more harmful, said Fleming of the Center for Biological Diversity. But if you’re just testing for a list of chemicals added to the well, he said, you’re testing for the wrong thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, agreed to answer questions only by email. Asked about the focus on testing crops, Scofield offered a carefully worded statement that ended: “We agree with the Water Board and their scientific advisor that this direct testing was the most technically sound manner to address the questions posed in the study.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the failure to address chemicals’ breakdown products, he responded with the exact same statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a really big assumption baked into the GSI work,” said Shonkoff. The studies assume that the chemicals remain in the same form from the oil field to a consumer’s plate and that it’s sufficient to monitor those particular chemicals, he said. “And that’s obviously incorrect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Still waiting for answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California supplies 99% of the world’s almonds and pistachios, mostly from Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water board regulators say nothing has received more scrutiny than the oil field water that irrigates those crops. “We know more about that produced water than probably any other produced water in the world,” said Rodgers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the evidence is still so scarce, said Colorado State’s Borch, “you can argue both sides.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no established tools to do a “real toxicity analysis,” Borch said, and there’s “not a good framework” to evaluate risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a study of treated produced water released into a stream for irrigation in Wyoming, Borch and his colleagues found that most of the chemicals they detected had no health safety standard. There were likely other chemicals and breakdown products “with unknown impacts” that had escaped detection, they noted in the 2020 study, \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S0048969720301170\">published in Science of the Total Environment\u003c/a>. In a related study published later that year, Borch’s team \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S004896972030454X\">assessed the potential of treated produced water to cause cancer\u003c/a>. Several different tests showed that the water caused increased mutation rates — an indication of cancer risk — even though most chemicals were present in low concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many stakeholders stand to benefit if produced water can be reused safely, the scientists wrote. But if the practice is expanded prematurely, they warned, it could harm water quality as well as the health of soil, livestock, and crops and people who eat them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People are still using benchmarks for water quality that were not developed with oil field wastewater in mind, Borch said, even though the complexity and chemical makeup of produced water is very different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And simply looking to see whether chemicals are present, as the GSI studies did, doesn’t say anything about toxicity. Many compounds in the wastewater may be present in concentrations low enough to escape detection, said Borch. But that doesn’t mean they’re not toxic, he said: “It just means you don’t have the method that allows for extraction and analysis of the compounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a paper published in December, Borch and his colleagues presented a model for taking a holistic \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00248\">approach that exposes cells and lab organisms to produced water to detect harmful responses\u003c/a>, along the lines Shonkoff had recommended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch’s “adverse outcome” approach is also likely to catch the breakdown products the Food Safety Panel identified as a major testing inadequacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a similar approach, led by its Region 8 office in Colorado, as part of a national program to study the safety of produced water, said Tricia Pfeiffer, an environmental engineer in Region 8’s Technical Assistance Branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort is addressing the need to harness cutting-edge approaches for evaluating oil-related contaminants, and their byproducts, in produced water intended for reuse. That includes enlisting tools to analyze human cells to identify any worrisome changes caused by chemicals in produced water while applying complementary approaches to detect toxic constituents in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is actual research,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s way more complicated than doing something that already has an analytical method.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we grapple with climate change issues, she said, “we’re looking for alternative water sources. And as a researcher, my biggest goal with this project is to help fill data gaps and make sure that we’re protective of human health and the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch said the technology exists to remove all sorts of contaminants from water, but it’s far more expensive than the low-cost methods used by Kern County oil companies. If people aren’t willing to pay the real costs of growing crops in a water-scarce region, he said, “maybe we shouldn’t even produce almonds because they use so much water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choosing less water-intensive crops is critical to keeping land productive, said Siemens, the Wasco farmer who was shocked to learn that his water district was sending him oil field wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens is moving away from thirsty almonds to dry-farming olives, mulberries and figs, focusing on farming in ways that suit the region. Like raising goats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Goats would be happy to eat all these weeds out there,” Siemens said, pointing to the field behind his house. And lots of people in the valley would be happy to eat goat meat, he said. “You can go to any taqueria in the area and buy \u003cem>carne de cabra\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s vision of sustainable farming does not include taking the wastewater of an industry whose greenhouse gas emissions have helped fuel California’s relentless droughts and contaminated its precious groundwater supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not just trying to meet a USDA organic standard,” Siemens said. “We’re trying to increase the vitality of this land for the future. Our kids live here, and I hope my grandkids will live here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means protecting the soil and aquifers that helped turn Kern County into one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the results of a truly independent analysis of whether oil field-produced water is fit to irrigate crops sent around the world, Pfeiffer said, is still years away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Anne Marshall-Chalmers, an Inside Climate News fellow, contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Studies in Kern County, performed by oil industry consultants, cannot answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with 'produced water,' the board's own panel of experts concedes.",
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"description": "Studies in Kern County, performed by oil industry consultants, cannot answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with 'produced water,' the board's own panel of experts concedes.",
"title": "A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant | KQED",
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"headline": "A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GSI did not tell water board officials about its ties to the oil industry, which shared the roughly $3.4 million in costs for the firm’s studies and related work with the water districts that benefit from the distribution of wastewater from oil extraction, known as “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One member of the board’s Food Safety Expert Panel that reviewed GSI’s studies was nominated by Chevron and initially paid by the oil industry, and a second panel member worked as a consultant for an oil company selling produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the expert panel’s own review concluded that GSI’s studies could not answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Thomas Borch of Colorado State University, a leading expert on treating and reusing produced water for crop irrigation who was not involved in the project, said that based on the data GSI had and the way they designed the experiments, “they were not able to draw the conclusions they did. Period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, said in a statement via email that his firm agreed with the water board that the studies were performed in “the most technically sound manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay Rodgers, the water board official who oversaw the Food Safety Project, said he promised the board that if any evidence were ever discovered that produced water was harming people consuming crops, “we would stop it immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the water board’s direction, GSI compiled a list of hundreds of chemicals used in oil operations, then focused on those that might pose health risks. But an absence of information to assess safety dogged the project from the start. Many of the chemicals had never been studied before, or lacked critical details about their use, the board’s panel of experts noted, because the oil companies said doing so would reveal trade secrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Already there was a data gap there because some of those chemicals don’t have reliable toxicity information,” said John Fleming, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings of the board and its expert panel found no food safety or public health concern, said David Ansolabehere, general manager of the Cawelo Water District, which has taken produced water from Chevron for decades. “Cawelo will continue to test the water based on the regional board’s permit requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978392\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978392\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"White steam rises off gray water at a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron's Kern River Oil Field. In the foreground and behind the oval reservoir are brown fields. A long pipeline extends from the far right of the photo to the edge of the reservoir.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steam rises from a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field. Chevron treats the wastewater, then transfers it via pipeline to the reservoir, where it’s blended with surface water and/or groundwater and sent to irrigation canals. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron tested for all additives used in the Kern River field for which a testing method approved by the Environmental Protection Agency exists, said Jonathan Harshman, communications advisor for Chevron’s San Joaquin Valley Business Unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet more than a fifth of the chemicals GSI identified — and 60% of those deemed most likely to pose a health risk — lacked both toxicity information and approved testing methods. The water board conceded that the data gaps left “potentially significant unknowns” about the chemicals’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they say this is safe,” Fleming said, “it’s based on what chemicals they were able to test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means the “no identifiable increased health risks” assertion applies to just a fraction of potential chemicals in produced water applied to crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Oil’s profligate water use\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In early August, during one of the driest summers on record, Wasco farmer Nate Siemens received a troubling notice from his irrigation district, which is regulated by the Central Valley water board. “Please be aware that this water includes some amount of reclaimed oilfield production water,” it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978401\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978401\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Almond farmer Nate Siemens stands in front of a large tree on his farm. He's wearing a red and black plaid shirt over a black hoodie, and a silver and gold ball cap. Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family's Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry's wastewater.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family’s Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry’s wastewater. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross, Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant with the Rodale Institute, was shocked. Siemens needed that water. But he’s transitioning his family’s Fat Uncle Farms to organic and wasn’t keen on using the oil industry’s wastewater to irrigate his almonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s farming roots in the region predate the rise of Kern County’s oil industry, which produces more than 70% of the state’s oil. He was well aware that climate-polluting pump jacks operate among corporate farms growing miles of water-intensive almonds and pistachios, California’s most valuable export crops. But he had no idea just how entrenched oil operations had become in \u003ca href=\"http://www.kernag.com/caap/crop-reports/crop20_29/crop2020.pdf\">the county’s $7.6 billion agricultural industry\u003c/a> until he received that notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 miles southeast of Siemens’s farm, thousands of densely packed pump jacks stretch as far as the eye can see toward the horizon, bobbing robotically as they suck oil and water from wells carved into the denuded landscape of the Kern River Oil Field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pump jacks have pried more than 2 billion barrels from the field since oil was discovered here in 1899. But wresting Kern’s notoriously viscous crude from receding oil reserves requires injecting ever increasing amounts of water and hot steam underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png 650w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst-160x170.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nThat water returns to the surface along with groundwater. The mixture contains arsenic, uranium and other naturally occurring toxic elements, along with potentially hundreds of chemicals used in the extraction process. Since 1985, the ratio of water to oil recovered has more than doubled, from seven barrels of water per barrel of oil to 18 barrels today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a region with less than nine inches of rain in a normal year — the definition of a desert — getting enough water is a perennial concern. Nearly 30 years ago, Chevron struck what a former Cawelo Water District manager called a “win-win” deal to deliver some of the massive amounts of wastewater produced every day to farmers’ fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, more than 38,000 acre-feet of produced water from Chevron and other oil companies hydrates California farmland, including roughly 11% of Kern County’s irrigated farmland. That’s enough to cover about 38,000 football fields with a foot of water, or more than 12.4 billion gallons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978379\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater-160x143.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nChevron treats produced water from its Kern River Oil Field by removing oil from water through gravity separation, then skimming off solids and residual oil before filtering it through walnut hulls. The water then travels several miles by pipeline to a Cawelo holding pond, where it’s blended with surface and groundwater and sent to irrigation canals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first time Seth Shonkoff, a public health scientist with the nonprofit Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers (PSE) for Healthy Energy and a member of the expert panel, visited the Cawelo holding pond several years ago, he smelled an “extraordinarily strong” whiff of asphalt and crude oil. The same odors were much less offensive when he visited the pond with the panel a few years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either there’s natural variability in the water, Shonkoff said, or someone did something different before experts came to evaluate the operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it. We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Chevron claims that recycling produced water for irrigation allows the company to operate in a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/stories/protecting-the-environment\">sustainable manner\u003c/a>,” by minimizing reliance on fresh water. Yet the massive energy requirements of the extraction process make Kern’s oil one of the world’s most climate-polluting fossil fuels, and Chevron one of California’s top greenhouse gas emitters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has this green reputation, but if you scratch the surface on the oil industry in the state, you quickly discover that that’s not the case at all,” said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes,” Kretzmann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Unfit for purpose \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Central Valley water board said it focused on crops grown in oil wastewater to address public concerns, which included petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, protests outside the state Capitol and a bill to label food grown with the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced the bill in 2015, after learning that farmers could get organic certification for shunning pesticides while using produced water, and consumers would never know. “I thought that was a real problem,” said Gatto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same year, \u003ca href=\"https://sd10.senate.ca.gov/news/2015-03-06-threat-groundwater-posed-improperly-sited-oil-injection-wells-be-explored-senate\">legislators called hearings\u003c/a> to increase scrutiny of oil companies after learning their practices posed risks to protected groundwater, including potential drinking water and irrigation supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately,” said Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, who oversaw the Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testing crops for harmful chemicals to figure out whether they’re safe to eat may seem logical, but techniques to analyze food for oil-related chemicals are “light years” behind those for detecting the compounds in water and soil, Shonkoff said. He raised the problem repeatedly at panel meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, the panel agreed. Its first recommendation to the board was to discontinue crop sampling. It would be far more productive to focus on produced water and irrigated soil, the panel said, using approaches that can reveal the toxicity of the water and soil itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Shonkoff said, “most of the work that was done to test things for chemicals was done in food. Unfortunately, that was, in my professional opinion, a pretty big waste of time and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data GSI compiled — including the list of chemicals and their hazard profiles — was “way too limited” to draw conclusions about lack of toxicity, said Borch, the Colorado State University professor and produced water expert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t mean it’s toxic,” said Borch. But there was no way they could conclude that produced water posed no identifiable health risks based on the data they had and their experimental approach, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978406\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978406\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg\" alt='A sign is posted behind a chain link fence, protected with strands of barbed wire. The sign, in Spanish and English, reads \"Danger. Hot Water. Keep Away.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chevron relies on steam injections to extract Kern County’s tarry crude oil from aging formations, then sends the hot wastewater north to the Cawelo Water District via pipeline. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That leaves Siemens, who’s transitioning to organic, in a tough spot. Although produced water isn’t specifically defined under organic standards, organic farmers can’t use water that contains arsenic, a constituent of Kern’s produced water, and most synthetic compounds, like those used in oil and gas operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens stopped watering his orchard for a few weeks after his district notified him about the produced water. “And the trees suffered,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the almond harvest approached, Siemens couldn’t risk losing the trees. He used just enough of the water to keep them alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t know what we were getting into,” he said. “We just didn’t have time to do the research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Siemens had done the research, it might not have mattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it,” said Borch. “We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A failure to disclose\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest hurdles to evaluating the safety of produced water has been oil companies’ unwillingness to reveal key details about the chemicals they put down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before joining the panel, Shonkoff was working on an independent study of fracking for the California Council on Science and Technology, or CCST, when he discovered a dataset he’d never seen before: a list of chemicals used in conventional oil development, from fields in Southern California. At the time, no other location in the country, and maybe the world, required chemical disclosure for conventional operations. The CCST assessment, commissioned by the state, revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://ccst.us/wp-content/uploads/2015SB4-v2ES.pdf\">testing and treatment of produced water used for irrigation might not remove or even detect chemical\u003c/a>s used in fracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During fracking, operators inject a high-pressure mixture of water, chemicals and sand deep underground to break and then prop open surrounding rock to extract oil or gas. Conventional operations, by contrast, inject high-pressure steam to loosen gooey oil. Wastewater from both conventional and fracking operations falls under the heading of “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Shonkoff dug into the newfound data, and read the permits and regulations for Kern County’s produced water, he realized Chevron and other oil companies could put nearly any additives they wanted down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the water board prohibits using water from fracked wells for irrigation, fracking and conventional operations employ many of the same chemicals, Shonkoff told the board at the panel’s first public meeting. And most compounds used in conventional extraction processes in Kern County, he said, lack the information needed to assess safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s imperative that oil companies disclose not just which chemicals they use in oil and gas production but also the volume and frequency of their use, Shonkoff said. Until then, he said, “I’m not quite sure that we can say with any real level of certainty that this is safe or unsafe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers of the water board said he’d obtained a list of all the chemical compounds oil companies use. But to avoid trade secret information, he said, the board could not get the recipe, which details how often a chemical is used and how much goes down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers said he felt the highest priority was to get a list he could share with the panel members and the public and compensated for not getting the recipe by assuming all the chemicals were used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But knowing the hazard associated with a chemical depends on knowing that recipe, the panel concluded. It also requires knowing chemicals’ breakdown products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemicals are injected under intense heat and pressure into oil reservoirs, where they interact with scores of other compounds, before they’re pulled back to the surface and exposed to air. All these conditions can affect a chemical’s toxicity. And scientists have no good tools to understand how chemical interactions increase toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This assumption that we should be looking for the chemicals that were added to oil and gas operations, and the assumption that they will continue to be those same chemicals after all the processes that they go through, is too big of a leap to make,” Shonkoff said. “Of course, you’re not going to find them, because they most certainly have transformed into other types of chemical constituents by the time things are being monitored and tested for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some chemical additives might degrade into harmless substances, but others can prove more toxic. Shonkoff pointed to glutaraldehyde, a chemical widely used to kill microorganisms that gum up oil and gas extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glutaraldehyde is toxic to people, he said. Some of its breakdown products are even more toxic, some are less toxic and others are completely unknown because they haven’t been studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re talking about hundreds of chemicals, many of which we don’t have good toxicological information on,” Shonkoff said, “the idea that you can really understand the toxicological dimensions of their daughter products, and their transformation products in the presence of other chemicals, is outstripping what we know scientifically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a plant’s own metabolism can affect a chemical’s toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plants could take up chemicals in one form and turn them into something else that’s more harmful, said Fleming of the Center for Biological Diversity. But if you’re just testing for a list of chemicals added to the well, he said, you’re testing for the wrong thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, agreed to answer questions only by email. Asked about the focus on testing crops, Scofield offered a carefully worded statement that ended: “We agree with the Water Board and their scientific advisor that this direct testing was the most technically sound manner to address the questions posed in the study.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the failure to address chemicals’ breakdown products, he responded with the exact same statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a really big assumption baked into the GSI work,” said Shonkoff. The studies assume that the chemicals remain in the same form from the oil field to a consumer’s plate and that it’s sufficient to monitor those particular chemicals, he said. “And that’s obviously incorrect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Still waiting for answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California supplies 99% of the world’s almonds and pistachios, mostly from Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water board regulators say nothing has received more scrutiny than the oil field water that irrigates those crops. “We know more about that produced water than probably any other produced water in the world,” said Rodgers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the evidence is still so scarce, said Colorado State’s Borch, “you can argue both sides.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no established tools to do a “real toxicity analysis,” Borch said, and there’s “not a good framework” to evaluate risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a study of treated produced water released into a stream for irrigation in Wyoming, Borch and his colleagues found that most of the chemicals they detected had no health safety standard. There were likely other chemicals and breakdown products “with unknown impacts” that had escaped detection, they noted in the 2020 study, \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S0048969720301170\">published in Science of the Total Environment\u003c/a>. In a related study published later that year, Borch’s team \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S004896972030454X\">assessed the potential of treated produced water to cause cancer\u003c/a>. Several different tests showed that the water caused increased mutation rates — an indication of cancer risk — even though most chemicals were present in low concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many stakeholders stand to benefit if produced water can be reused safely, the scientists wrote. But if the practice is expanded prematurely, they warned, it could harm water quality as well as the health of soil, livestock, and crops and people who eat them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People are still using benchmarks for water quality that were not developed with oil field wastewater in mind, Borch said, even though the complexity and chemical makeup of produced water is very different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And simply looking to see whether chemicals are present, as the GSI studies did, doesn’t say anything about toxicity. Many compounds in the wastewater may be present in concentrations low enough to escape detection, said Borch. But that doesn’t mean they’re not toxic, he said: “It just means you don’t have the method that allows for extraction and analysis of the compounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a paper published in December, Borch and his colleagues presented a model for taking a holistic \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00248\">approach that exposes cells and lab organisms to produced water to detect harmful responses\u003c/a>, along the lines Shonkoff had recommended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch’s “adverse outcome” approach is also likely to catch the breakdown products the Food Safety Panel identified as a major testing inadequacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a similar approach, led by its Region 8 office in Colorado, as part of a national program to study the safety of produced water, said Tricia Pfeiffer, an environmental engineer in Region 8’s Technical Assistance Branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort is addressing the need to harness cutting-edge approaches for evaluating oil-related contaminants, and their byproducts, in produced water intended for reuse. That includes enlisting tools to analyze human cells to identify any worrisome changes caused by chemicals in produced water while applying complementary approaches to detect toxic constituents in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is actual research,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s way more complicated than doing something that already has an analytical method.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we grapple with climate change issues, she said, “we’re looking for alternative water sources. And as a researcher, my biggest goal with this project is to help fill data gaps and make sure that we’re protective of human health and the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch said the technology exists to remove all sorts of contaminants from water, but it’s far more expensive than the low-cost methods used by Kern County oil companies. If people aren’t willing to pay the real costs of growing crops in a water-scarce region, he said, “maybe we shouldn’t even produce almonds because they use so much water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choosing less water-intensive crops is critical to keeping land productive, said Siemens, the Wasco farmer who was shocked to learn that his water district was sending him oil field wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens is moving away from thirsty almonds to dry-farming olives, mulberries and figs, focusing on farming in ways that suit the region. Like raising goats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Goats would be happy to eat all these weeds out there,” Siemens said, pointing to the field behind his house. And lots of people in the valley would be happy to eat goat meat, he said. “You can go to any taqueria in the area and buy \u003cem>carne de cabra\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s vision of sustainable farming does not include taking the wastewater of an industry whose greenhouse gas emissions have helped fuel California’s relentless droughts and contaminated its precious groundwater supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not just trying to meet a USDA organic standard,” Siemens said. “We’re trying to increase the vitality of this land for the future. Our kids live here, and I hope my grandkids will live here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means protecting the soil and aquifers that helped turn Kern County into one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the results of a truly independent analysis of whether oil field-produced water is fit to irrigate crops sent around the world, Pfeiffer said, is still years away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Anne Marshall-Chalmers, an Inside Climate News fellow, contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"headTitle": "California Sues Federal Government Over Central Valley Drilling Proposal | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California on Friday officially \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/1%20Complaint.pdf\">challenged\u003c/a> a Trump administration plan to open up more than a million acres of public land in the state to fossil fuel development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the Bureau of Land Management \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951605/its-official-feds-open-up-central-california-to-more-drilling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finalized\u003c/a> a fracking and drilling plan that spans eight counties in Central California, ending a federal moratorium on new leases in the state. The proposal includes land in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called the federal plan “half-baked” and “misguided” and says it conflicts with California policy of reducing emissions of planet- warming gases 40% by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big concerns is this would set us back in our goals to address emissions of greenhouse gases,” Becerra said. “But it goes far beyond that. This is an issue of health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit is the latest action in California’s ongoing fight with the Trump administration over energy and climate policy. The state is aggressively scaling back fossil fuel extraction, increasing oversight of drilling operations and pursuing ambitious climate targets. At the same time, the Trump administration is seeking to expand drilling on public land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re talking about a million acres in California, federal public land, that this administration wants to open up to a process which is now substantiated to pose lots of risks,” Becerra said. “When you try to move forward with the plan that you didn’t run through the process properly, according to the law — whether it’s the environmental law, or our procedures law — we’re going to take action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California contends that more drilling will damage ecologically sensitive areas and endanger millions of Californians by contributing additional pollution in places already choked by dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra said that the risks to the state are too high to ignore. “One in every four children in the Central Valley suffers from asthma,” he said. “And all the issues that would confound our ability to protect the health of residents in the state are involved. It’s not just the risk of asthma, but heart disease, lung disease, cancer, all those things go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra says the plan is based on “incorrect assumptions” about the amount of fracking that could take place on public lands, and that energy companies have shown little to no interest in the locations proposed, a point on which industry experts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951384/california-is-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-trump-wants-to-expand-drilling-somethings-gotta-give\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agree\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokeswoman for the BLM’s Central California District, Serena Baker, said in an emailed statement that the bureau received a copy of the lawsuit and is reviewing it. The agency’s environmental analysis relied on the best available science, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that the environmental impact of any new drilling project would be “addressed at the site or project-specific level in subsequent tiered environmental analysis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BLM manages less than 10% of oil and gas operations in California with the state managing the remaining 90%,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom co-signed the lawsuit, which the state filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, along with the California Air Resources Board, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, BLM released a separate plan that opened up nearly 800,000 acres of the state’s Central Coast plus land in Alameda and Contra Costa counties for gas and oil extraction. California has not sued the agency over this plan, but conservation groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, have filed suit over both drilling plans.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the federal plan conflicts with the state's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California on Friday officially \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/1%20Complaint.pdf\">challenged\u003c/a> a Trump administration plan to open up more than a million acres of public land in the state to fossil fuel development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the Bureau of Land Management \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951605/its-official-feds-open-up-central-california-to-more-drilling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finalized\u003c/a> a fracking and drilling plan that spans eight counties in Central California, ending a federal moratorium on new leases in the state. The proposal includes land in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called the federal plan “half-baked” and “misguided” and says it conflicts with California policy of reducing emissions of planet- warming gases 40% by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big concerns is this would set us back in our goals to address emissions of greenhouse gases,” Becerra said. “But it goes far beyond that. This is an issue of health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit is the latest action in California’s ongoing fight with the Trump administration over energy and climate policy. The state is aggressively scaling back fossil fuel extraction, increasing oversight of drilling operations and pursuing ambitious climate targets. At the same time, the Trump administration is seeking to expand drilling on public land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re talking about a million acres in California, federal public land, that this administration wants to open up to a process which is now substantiated to pose lots of risks,” Becerra said. “When you try to move forward with the plan that you didn’t run through the process properly, according to the law — whether it’s the environmental law, or our procedures law — we’re going to take action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California contends that more drilling will damage ecologically sensitive areas and endanger millions of Californians by contributing additional pollution in places already choked by dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra said that the risks to the state are too high to ignore. “One in every four children in the Central Valley suffers from asthma,” he said. “And all the issues that would confound our ability to protect the health of residents in the state are involved. It’s not just the risk of asthma, but heart disease, lung disease, cancer, all those things go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra says the plan is based on “incorrect assumptions” about the amount of fracking that could take place on public lands, and that energy companies have shown little to no interest in the locations proposed, a point on which industry experts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951384/california-is-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-trump-wants-to-expand-drilling-somethings-gotta-give\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agree\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokeswoman for the BLM’s Central California District, Serena Baker, said in an emailed statement that the bureau received a copy of the lawsuit and is reviewing it. The agency’s environmental analysis relied on the best available science, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that the environmental impact of any new drilling project would be “addressed at the site or project-specific level in subsequent tiered environmental analysis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BLM manages less than 10% of oil and gas operations in California with the state managing the remaining 90%,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom co-signed the lawsuit, which the state filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, along with the California Air Resources Board, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, BLM released a separate plan that opened up nearly 800,000 acres of the state’s Central Coast plus land in Alameda and Contra Costa counties for gas and oil extraction. California has not sued the agency over this plan, but conservation groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, have filed suit over both drilling plans.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Feds Open California's Central Coast For New Oil Drilling",
"headTitle": "Feds Open California’s Central Coast For New Oil Drilling | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">The federal government has opened 722,000 acres of land to new leases for oil and gas drilling across the Central Coast of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bureau of Land Management’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-central-coast-field-office-issues-decision-oil-and-gas-development\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">decision\u003c/span>\u003c/a> is the latest example of the Trump administration’s push to expand domestic fracking and oil production, and it opens up parts of the Bay Area, including Alameda and Contra Costa counties, for potential drilling — although the likelihood of new production there is slim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, environmental groups said the decision flies in the face of local opposition, and they decried it as reckless, promising to sue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Turning over these spectacular wild places to dirty drilling and fracking will sicken Californians, harm endangered species and fuel climate chaos,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many years, dating back to the Obama administration, the Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, has sought a new oil and gas leasing plan for the Central Coast of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the decision opens up land for new leases, it does not give the greenlight to any new drilling, at least not yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the decision, the Bureau of Land Management issued 14 new leases to projects around existing oil fields, but the companies will still need to file applications for drilling permits and conduct site-specific environmental analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Serena Baker, a spokeswoman for the agency’s regional office, said this plan meets goals outlined by President Donald Trump, who has pushed a doctrine of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/climate/trump-energy-dominance.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">energy dominance\u003c/span>\u003c/a>” and called for increased development of fossil fuel resources and job creation in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-economic-growth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">executive order\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This plan supports the administration’s priority of promoting environmentally responsible energy development,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency estimates that the oil and gas industry accounts for 3,000 jobs and $620 million in tax revenue across its Central Coast territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said that BLM expects oil and gas development in this part of California only around existing oil and gas fields in Fresno, Monterrey, and San Benito County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if the agency expects any new drilling in the Bay Area, Baker said, “We do not.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "Feds Open California's Central Coast For New Oil Drilling",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">The federal government has opened 722,000 acres of land to new leases for oil and gas drilling across the Central Coast of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bureau of Land Management’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-central-coast-field-office-issues-decision-oil-and-gas-development\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">decision\u003c/span>\u003c/a> is the latest example of the Trump administration’s push to expand domestic fracking and oil production, and it opens up parts of the Bay Area, including Alameda and Contra Costa counties, for potential drilling — although the likelihood of new production there is slim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, environmental groups said the decision flies in the face of local opposition, and they decried it as reckless, promising to sue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Turning over these spectacular wild places to dirty drilling and fracking will sicken Californians, harm endangered species and fuel climate chaos,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many years, dating back to the Obama administration, the Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, has sought a new oil and gas leasing plan for the Central Coast of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the decision opens up land for new leases, it does not give the greenlight to any new drilling, at least not yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the decision, the Bureau of Land Management issued 14 new leases to projects around existing oil fields, but the companies will still need to file applications for drilling permits and conduct site-specific environmental analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Serena Baker, a spokeswoman for the agency’s regional office, said this plan meets goals outlined by President Donald Trump, who has pushed a doctrine of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/climate/trump-energy-dominance.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">energy dominance\u003c/span>\u003c/a>” and called for increased development of fossil fuel resources and job creation in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-economic-growth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">executive order\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This plan supports the administration’s priority of promoting environmentally responsible energy development,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency estimates that the oil and gas industry accounts for 3,000 jobs and $620 million in tax revenue across its Central Coast territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said that BLM expects oil and gas development in this part of California only around existing oil and gas fields in Fresno, Monterrey, and San Benito County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if the agency expects any new drilling in the Bay Area, Baker said, “We do not.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "U.S. Wants to Dredge San Francisco Bay to Aid Oil Shipping",
"headTitle": "U.S. Wants to Dredge San Francisco Bay to Aid Oil Shipping | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The Trump administration’s commitment to fossil fuels is no secret. Federal energy officials recently went so far as to \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-authorizes-additional-lng-exports-freeport-lng\">call\u003c/a> natural gas “molecules of U.S. freedom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That dedication to nonrenewable energy is now reaching into the San Francisco Bay itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to dredge 13 miles of the bay in order to deepen a channel for ships carrying imported crude oil to four Bay Area refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first of two proposed segments cuts across the southern third of San Pablo Bay, beginning northwest of Richmond and extending to the Carquinez Strait. The second runs from Martinez to Avon, under the Benicia Martinez Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-800x347.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1944065 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-800x347.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-800x347.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-160x69.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-768x333.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-1020x442.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-1200x520.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture.png 1498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which drafted the \u003ca href=\"https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll7/id/11171\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plan\u003c/a> in April, said the intention is to lower the cost of crude oil — most of which is imported from foreign countries — by making it cheaper to ship to the Phillips 66, Valero, Shell and Marathon refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Port of Stockton is named as a nonfederal sponsor of the Corps’ plan and is partnering with Contra Costa County, where three of the refineries are located, to prepare an environmental impact report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists, however, are aggressively pushing back, saying the project will worsen air pollution around the refineries and increase the number of ships in the bay that are heavily loaded with oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and several other groups sent a \u003ca href=\"https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/Comments_of_Environmental_Groups_on_the_DEIS_for_the_San_Francisco_Bay.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joint\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/VakxC829m0u6qv17T1nmfu?domain=s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\">letter\u003c/a> on Monday to the federal government arguing the project would increase the risk of a spill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a terrible proposal on so many levels,” said Hollin Kretzmann, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s an affront to communities in the Bay Area who already have to suffer from the pollution from our many oil refineries. The dredging project will end up increasing the amount of oil that is processed at those refineries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Multiple Trips Needed\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army Corps of Engineers says the current shipping channel is inefficient because it’s shallow depth limits the amount of oil that ships can carry into the Carquinez Strait. Instead, they have to “light-load” their cargo, wait until high tide, and make multiple trips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan calls for deepening channels in San Pablo Bay’s Pinole Shoal and east of the strait at Bulls Head Reach from 35 to 38 feet, so that the ships can travel with a larger load, reducing the cost, number of ships and drop-offs. The Corps estimates that the dredge will save $10 million annually and increase the oil-carrying capacity of ships from 68% to 72%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By decreasing the cost of bringing that commodity into those facilities, then that should translate into a lower cost to the consumer,” said Pamela Castens, who is managing the project for the Corps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castens said the crude is shipped in to meet product demand, and the Corps estimates the modification won’t increase the amount of oil that the refineries process. “That volume is assumed to hold steady in the future because of the commodity forecast projections,” Castens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greg Karras, a staff scientist with the environmental group Communities for a Better Environment, disagrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The project would very likely enable full, or at least increased use of the refineries’ currently unused capacity,” he wrote in a separate letter to the Corps. Karras \u003ca href=\"https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/Expert_Report_of_G_Karras_on_SF_Bay_to_Stockton_Navigational_Improvement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimated\u003c/a> the extra oil brought in could release between 1.8 and 7.2 million additional tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler Earl, an attorney for the group, said the projected increase “at a time when we should be moving away from fossil fuel production” is “unacceptable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists also expressed concern that the Corps’ office in North Carolina is managing the project, and that it filed environmental documents in Jacksonville, Florida rather than California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t make sense for an agency on the other end of the country to be in charge of a project in San Francisco,” Kretzmann said. “I can only assume it was to hide the fact that they’re trying to push forward this terrible project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corps’ Castens said its experts are scattered around the country and will shift projects around to make them easier to manage. The agency moved this particular plan out of San Francisco in late 2016. It held a public meeting about the project in Martinez on June 11, and the public affairs office \u003ca href=\"https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in San Francisco\u003c/a> has listed the plan on its web site, Castens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, Castens’ team must file an amended plan in October. They hope to begin construction by 2023, but Contra Costa County and the Port of Stockton still need to file environmental impact reports with the state of California, which environmentalists will likely challenge. Also, Congress has yet to appropriate money for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stockton Wants Jobs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining shipping lanes across the San Francisco Bay, a process that involves clearing millions of cubic yards of mud, sand and silt every year. For years, the Corps looked to improve shipping channels all the way from San Francisco to the Port of Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in 2016, the Corps decided that deepening the channel between Avon and the Port of Stockton would be too expensive and could increase the salinity of the Delta. Instead, the agency limited the scope of the project to the 13-mile stretch ending at Avon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Port is still in this project to eventually get to Stockton,” said Jeffrey Wingfield, director of environmental and public affairs for the Port of Stockton. “We’ll do a separate study at some point. We are about creating jobs in Stockton. This stretch has to get dug for it to get to Stockton in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story originally incorrectly cited that the four refineries are located in Contra Costa County. The Valero refinery is located in Solano County.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Environmentalists are challenging a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to deepen a channel in San Francisco Bay. The plan is intended to accommodate ships carrying imported crude oil.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Trump administration’s commitment to fossil fuels is no secret. Federal energy officials recently went so far as to \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-authorizes-additional-lng-exports-freeport-lng\">call\u003c/a> natural gas “molecules of U.S. freedom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That dedication to nonrenewable energy is now reaching into the San Francisco Bay itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to dredge 13 miles of the bay in order to deepen a channel for ships carrying imported crude oil to four Bay Area refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first of two proposed segments cuts across the southern third of San Pablo Bay, beginning northwest of Richmond and extending to the Carquinez Strait. The second runs from Martinez to Avon, under the Benicia Martinez Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-800x347.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1944065 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-800x347.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-800x347.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-160x69.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-768x333.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-1020x442.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture-1200x520.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Capture.png 1498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which drafted the \u003ca href=\"https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll7/id/11171\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plan\u003c/a> in April, said the intention is to lower the cost of crude oil — most of which is imported from foreign countries — by making it cheaper to ship to the Phillips 66, Valero, Shell and Marathon refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Port of Stockton is named as a nonfederal sponsor of the Corps’ plan and is partnering with Contra Costa County, where three of the refineries are located, to prepare an environmental impact report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists, however, are aggressively pushing back, saying the project will worsen air pollution around the refineries and increase the number of ships in the bay that are heavily loaded with oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and several other groups sent a \u003ca href=\"https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/Comments_of_Environmental_Groups_on_the_DEIS_for_the_San_Francisco_Bay.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joint\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/VakxC829m0u6qv17T1nmfu?domain=s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\">letter\u003c/a> on Monday to the federal government arguing the project would increase the risk of a spill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a terrible proposal on so many levels,” said Hollin Kretzmann, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s an affront to communities in the Bay Area who already have to suffer from the pollution from our many oil refineries. The dredging project will end up increasing the amount of oil that is processed at those refineries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Multiple Trips Needed\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army Corps of Engineers says the current shipping channel is inefficient because it’s shallow depth limits the amount of oil that ships can carry into the Carquinez Strait. Instead, they have to “light-load” their cargo, wait until high tide, and make multiple trips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan calls for deepening channels in San Pablo Bay’s Pinole Shoal and east of the strait at Bulls Head Reach from 35 to 38 feet, so that the ships can travel with a larger load, reducing the cost, number of ships and drop-offs. The Corps estimates that the dredge will save $10 million annually and increase the oil-carrying capacity of ships from 68% to 72%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By decreasing the cost of bringing that commodity into those facilities, then that should translate into a lower cost to the consumer,” said Pamela Castens, who is managing the project for the Corps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castens said the crude is shipped in to meet product demand, and the Corps estimates the modification won’t increase the amount of oil that the refineries process. “That volume is assumed to hold steady in the future because of the commodity forecast projections,” Castens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greg Karras, a staff scientist with the environmental group Communities for a Better Environment, disagrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The project would very likely enable full, or at least increased use of the refineries’ currently unused capacity,” he wrote in a separate letter to the Corps. Karras \u003ca href=\"https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/Expert_Report_of_G_Karras_on_SF_Bay_to_Stockton_Navigational_Improvement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimated\u003c/a> the extra oil brought in could release between 1.8 and 7.2 million additional tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler Earl, an attorney for the group, said the projected increase “at a time when we should be moving away from fossil fuel production” is “unacceptable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists also expressed concern that the Corps’ office in North Carolina is managing the project, and that it filed environmental documents in Jacksonville, Florida rather than California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t make sense for an agency on the other end of the country to be in charge of a project in San Francisco,” Kretzmann said. “I can only assume it was to hide the fact that they’re trying to push forward this terrible project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corps’ Castens said its experts are scattered around the country and will shift projects around to make them easier to manage. The agency moved this particular plan out of San Francisco in late 2016. It held a public meeting about the project in Martinez on June 11, and the public affairs office \u003ca href=\"https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in San Francisco\u003c/a> has listed the plan on its web site, Castens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, Castens’ team must file an amended plan in October. They hope to begin construction by 2023, but Contra Costa County and the Port of Stockton still need to file environmental impact reports with the state of California, which environmentalists will likely challenge. Also, Congress has yet to appropriate money for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stockton Wants Jobs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining shipping lanes across the San Francisco Bay, a process that involves clearing millions of cubic yards of mud, sand and silt every year. For years, the Corps looked to improve shipping channels all the way from San Francisco to the Port of Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in 2016, the Corps decided that deepening the channel between Avon and the Port of Stockton would be too expensive and could increase the salinity of the Delta. Instead, the agency limited the scope of the project to the 13-mile stretch ending at Avon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Port is still in this project to eventually get to Stockton,” said Jeffrey Wingfield, director of environmental and public affairs for the Port of Stockton. “We’ll do a separate study at some point. We are about creating jobs in Stockton. This stretch has to get dug for it to get to Stockton in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story originally incorrectly cited that the four refineries are located in Contra Costa County. The Valero refinery is located in Solano County.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "East Bay Oil Field to Shut Down Following Local Pushback",
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"content": "\u003cp>Alameda County’s lone oil field will close up shop after nearly five decades of production, following a county decision to deny its permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The field, located just outside of Livermore, produces about 30 barrels of oil a day and is one of two remaining oil producers in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebresources.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">E&B Natural Resources\u003c/a>, which purchased the oil field in 2007, had reapplied for two 10-year conditional use permits in January that were approved in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">’Local governments can make a huge difference in the fight against climate change.’ \u003ccite>Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The decision was challenged by two environmental advocacy groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and Livermore Eco Watchdog, because of perceived risks to Livermore’s groundwater. Accompanying the appeal was a signed letter endorsed by more than 20 public health and environmental groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If California wants to be a leader in fighting climate change, it makes no sense for us to continue approving oil projects like this around the state,” says Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney at the center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groups’ appeal was brought before the Board of Supervisors last week in a hearing that ran for more than three hours. The board ultimately ruled against approving the permits in a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor Nate Miley abstaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the final vote, 4-0, reflects widespread opposition from people from all parts of the county,” says Kretzmann. “The board prioritized the community rather than the profits of the oil company and they should be applauded for standing up to the oil industry and putting their constituents first.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>E&B, based in Bakersfield, uses a method known as waterflooding to extract oil from the ground. The process pumps water down one well, pushing the oil up through a different well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Local governments can make a huge difference in the fight against climate change by reducing fossil fuel production and moving us toward renewable energy,” says Kretzmann. “Alameda County has shown bold decision-making and it can be a model for other cities and counties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for E&B called the decision “disappointing,” pointing to a recommendation to approve the permits from the county planning department and a green light from the local zoning board. He also implied that the fight isn’t over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“E&B Natural Resources will continue to explore a mutually agreeable resolution with the County on our conditional use permits,” spokesman Ted Cordova wrote in a statement emailed to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>E&B has been cited for safety violations over the years, including a 2015 fine for failing to report a spill and disposing of the contaminated soil without testing for toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also that year, E&B agreed to an $85,000 settlement with the county for mixing sludge with non-hazardous soils. At the time, the company argued that the violation occurred before E&B took over operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies, the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and the Water Resources Board, have said that the groundwater \u003ca href=\"https://patch.com/california/livermore/protest-planned-public-meeting-new-exemption-oil-producer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beneath the oil field\u003c/a> is not suitable for drinking because of its high mineral and salt content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kretzmann takes issue with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their own documents show that the water could be treated and used for other types of use,” he says. “The water should be preserved for future use — especially given the fact that California is likely to experience more severe droughts in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Alameda County’s lone oil field will close up shop after nearly five decades of production, following a county decision to deny its permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The field, located just outside of Livermore, produces about 30 barrels of oil a day and is one of two remaining oil producers in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebresources.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">E&B Natural Resources\u003c/a>, which purchased the oil field in 2007, had reapplied for two 10-year conditional use permits in January that were approved in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">’Local governments can make a huge difference in the fight against climate change.’ \u003ccite>Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The decision was challenged by two environmental advocacy groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and Livermore Eco Watchdog, because of perceived risks to Livermore’s groundwater. Accompanying the appeal was a signed letter endorsed by more than 20 public health and environmental groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If California wants to be a leader in fighting climate change, it makes no sense for us to continue approving oil projects like this around the state,” says Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney at the center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groups’ appeal was brought before the Board of Supervisors last week in a hearing that ran for more than three hours. The board ultimately ruled against approving the permits in a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor Nate Miley abstaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the final vote, 4-0, reflects widespread opposition from people from all parts of the county,” says Kretzmann. “The board prioritized the community rather than the profits of the oil company and they should be applauded for standing up to the oil industry and putting their constituents first.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>E&B, based in Bakersfield, uses a method known as waterflooding to extract oil from the ground. The process pumps water down one well, pushing the oil up through a different well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Local governments can make a huge difference in the fight against climate change by reducing fossil fuel production and moving us toward renewable energy,” says Kretzmann. “Alameda County has shown bold decision-making and it can be a model for other cities and counties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for E&B called the decision “disappointing,” pointing to a recommendation to approve the permits from the county planning department and a green light from the local zoning board. He also implied that the fight isn’t over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“E&B Natural Resources will continue to explore a mutually agreeable resolution with the County on our conditional use permits,” spokesman Ted Cordova wrote in a statement emailed to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>E&B has been cited for safety violations over the years, including a 2015 fine for failing to report a spill and disposing of the contaminated soil without testing for toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also that year, E&B agreed to an $85,000 settlement with the county for mixing sludge with non-hazardous soils. At the time, the company argued that the violation occurred before E&B took over operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies, the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and the Water Resources Board, have said that the groundwater \u003ca href=\"https://patch.com/california/livermore/protest-planned-public-meeting-new-exemption-oil-producer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beneath the oil field\u003c/a> is not suitable for drinking because of its high mineral and salt content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kretzmann takes issue with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their own documents show that the water could be treated and used for other types of use,” he says. “The water should be preserved for future use — especially given the fact that California is likely to experience more severe droughts in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"science-friday": {
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