California’s Oil Country Faces an ‘Existential’ Threat. Kern County Is Betting on the Carbon Removal Industry to Save It.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News, and Joshua Yeager, KVPR
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.
Related Knowledge Center: Carbon capture
The federal government is investing heavily in the development of carbon capture and storage (or sequestration), which offers the enticing prospect of preventing carbon dioxide emissions produced during combustion from entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. But the technologies involved, while proven, remain expensive, an obstacle to widespread adoption.