August 3, 2025 • 28 mins
As the planet hits record-breaking carbon emissions, the race is on to slash CO2 levels. A controversial technology —called carbon capture and storage— is getting pushed as a solution by politicians and private companies. But critics say it’s just another way to keep fossil fuels alive, and for taxpayers to foot the bill
We traveled to California’s Central Valley —ground zero for new carbon capture projects— where locals have questions. Will this save the planet? What are the health risks, and who pays the price?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Futuro investigates Investia.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Dear Latino USA listener, before we start, you should know
that if you want to listen to this episode ad free,
just join plus and you can join for as little
as seven dollars a month. Joining also gets you behind
the scenes access and yes, some cheese may so click
the link in the episode description and after you do that,
(00:40):
then click play. Let's go to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
We're still following breaking news of a major gas league
in Yazoo County in your Highway four thirty three and Highway.
At around seven pm on a Saturday in late February,
residents of the small village of Starsha in Mississippi heard
a loud boom, the major gas lake in Yazoo Counties
and a whole town fleeing their homes after heavy rains.
(01:12):
A pipeline carrying carbon dioxide or CO two ruptured. Ten
minutes after the rupture, the private company that ran the
pipelines close the main operating valves Forsatarsha, but in those
ten minutes, more than thirty thousand barrels of CO two
have been released into the air. Now residents started experiencing
(01:36):
symptoms and called nine.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
One one I don't know if CONN they busted it, whatever,
but it's kind.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Of My daughter had breathing problem.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
She's on the floor right now.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
We'll got here. CO two is an asphyxient At high concentrations,
you can't breathe.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Its crowd, you know bad in here.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
The pipeline company didn't immediately notify local authorities about what
had happened, so first responders reacted without having all the details.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yes, we've got a ghastly up payer.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
CO two displaces oxygen, so combustion engines like the ones
in regular vehicles don't work properly. In the event of
a CO two leak, Satasha ambulances had trouble responding to calls.
Some residents had to drive themselves to the hospital. In total,
(02:38):
forty five people were hospitalized for CO two poisoning that day,
and at least two hundred had to be evacuated. Years later,
some of Satasha's residents still report health problems related to
the gas leak. After the Satarsha incident, there was a
(03:04):
two year investigation by the federal government, which found that
there were glaring gaps in how CO two pipelines were regulated,
so the government started working on new rules. By January
of this year, five years after the incident, there was
finally an official proposal with new regulations that would prevent
something like this from happening again, but the Trump administration
(03:29):
quickly rescinded them before they went into effect. Satarsha is
an example of what can happen when a CO two
pipeline ruptures and leaks, and in the years to come,
there could be tens of thousands more of these pipelines.
That's because private companies want to build them for something
(03:49):
called carbon capture and storage, which I'll get into later,
but it's essentially a way to trap CO two to
keep it from going up in the atmosphere as a gas.
The plans include California, one of the most environmentally regulated states.
And here's something to keep in mind. There's a federal
tax credit that helps fund carbon capture and storage projects.
(04:12):
And hear this. The Trump Administration's Big Beautiful Bill is
getting rid of or phasing out most environmentally friendly programs,
but not this one. In fact, the bill is not
only keeping it, it's going to expand it because depending
on who you ask, this is a critical way to
(04:33):
address the climate crisis or a subsidy for big oil.
So we're going to California's Central Valley, where there's a
plan to build CO two pipelines. Many in the community
are afraid of its risks and unsure if it's benefits.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
From Fudromdia. It's Latino USA im Maria no Josa Today,
producer of Victoria Estrada, brings us a deep look into
carbon capture. It's a controversial technology that addresses the climate crisis,
and we look at how it's being tested in California.
(05:23):
In twenty twenty four, the planet reached an all time
high of carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide or CO two, has
been proven to be one of the main factors that's
contributing to the planets warming. California, which is the fourth
largest economy in the world, has vowed to go carbon
(05:43):
neutral by twenty forty five. That means that it will
remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as it releases.
To achieve that goal, specialized technologies are coming into the state,
including the one we mentioned, carbon capture and storage. Latino
USA producer Victoria Estrada traveled to California Central Valley. That's
(06:07):
the place where many new carbon capture projects are being proposed,
and Victoria brings us this story.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I turned onto Buttonwellow Road, which turns into Elkell Road.
Kerr County is at the southernmost part of California Central Valley,
about two hours north of Los Angeles. This is fertile land.
Kerrent County alone produces almost all of the carrots weed
in the United States. More than half of the population
(06:37):
here is Latino and a lot of them work in
the fields. There's a lot of trees. I'm not sure
what kind of fruit trees they are. There's another industry
that's also very present.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Oil.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, that's the first wall. As I drove through the
Elk Hills oil field, I saw hills covered in pump
jacks machines that pull oil from the wells. Looks like
watching a dinosaur, you know. They're metal and look kind
of like giant hammers or pick axis with a polly
(07:12):
attached to one end of the head. I drove through
here because this is a place where the first carbon
capture and storage project in all of California is slated
to go up. The project is owned by the California
Resources Corporation, which is the largest oil and gas company
in the State. They're calling this project carbon terra vault Ie.
(07:37):
So what exactly is carbon capture and storage? Let me explain.
Let's say you've got a coal fired power plant or
a natural gas plant that's emitting carbon dioxide, and on
top of the factory's chimney where the smoke comes out,
you put equipment to trap the CO two. Once captured,
(07:59):
the CO two go through a chemical process and it's
turned from gas into a type of liquid that you
can then inject underground to store Here in el Kills.
The plan is to put the liquid CO two in
the underground deposits that used to hold oil, hopefully permanently
or at least for hundreds of years. Some people in
(08:25):
the community are nervous about the project, in part because
of oil companies behind it.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
We grow up with oil and gas wells in our
backyards next to schools.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
This is CSA Aguirri. He works at the Central California
Environmental Justice Network in Bakersfield, Kerrent County's largest city.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
There's so much cut corners in California oil and gas
law and enforcement.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
He's seen firsthand how government regulations aren't always enough to
keep oil companies in check.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
The number One issue for a lot of government agencies
is capacity, and they don't have the manpower, they don't
have the hours, they don't have the needed tools in
order to properly inspect and respond to leaks because of
the vast amount of infrastructure that exists.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And looking at the possibility of a local carbon capture
project is making him recap the drawbacks of living in
a place with a strong oil industry.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
In twenty fourteen, there was a pipeline leak that caused
eight families to be evacuated for nine months from their homes.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And we have breaking news out of Arvin tonight where
several homes have been evacuated due to a potentially dangerous
gas leak. Flammable gases, including methane, had been accumulating underneath
the soil and started spreading to the houses.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Officials don't know how long the company's pipeline has been leaking.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
And the gas leak it was discovered coming out of
the outlets of a room of a woman that was pregnant.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Residents in this neighborhood behind me say that they could
smell gas for several days.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
One in that house has chronic bloody noses or allergies.
One of the people that was living inside of that
house has lung cancer.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
This wasn't an isolated event, says that and his team
have documented other leaks in Current County that want to
notice for months, even years, and the gas leaks, along
with other pollutants from the oil and agriculture industries, have
turned Current County into the place with the worst air
quality in the country. Kurrent County's Planning and Natural Resources
(10:35):
departments said they're imposing more than ninety measures to mitigate
risks on the Carbon Terrible project to prevent anything like
what happened in Mississippi. But since carving capture is an
industrial and chemical process that releases.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
Other pollutants, one of the biggest concerns is how is
this going to add to our pollution burden.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
There's also issues with the place where Carbon Terra Vault
is supposed to store the CO two Because there's so
many wells in the Elk Hills oil field, CO two
could leak through any unused well that hasn't been properly sealed.
Plus this is a seismic area. Geologists estimate that there's
a twenty percent chance that an earthquake could damage the
(11:19):
project in the next hundred years. So despite all of
these questions, if this is a way to address the
climate crisis, our carbon capture projects worth it.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
We actually have no information about the amount of money
that the American tacpayer is paying for this purported climate solution,
and whether or not it's a good deal, Like, are
we getting anything for it?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
That's after the break.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Stay with us. Yes, hey, we're back. And before the break,
(12:23):
we heard about a technology coming to California's Central Valley.
It's called carbon capture and storage. Supporters say it's a
way to address the climate crisis, but for others it
simply has way too many potentially deadly risks that the
New USA producer Victori Esta that is going to continue
the reporting now.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Carbon capture has been presented as a win win solution
for the climate crisis. It removes CO two from the atmosphere,
it creates jobs, and it makes the oil industry, which
the country still relies on, heavily clean up.
Speaker 7 (13:00):
There's dangers, there's concerns in every project in every kind
of industry, But if you're mitigating those is worth that
risk to supply jobs to people that need them.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Rick Garcia is president of the local chapter of the
League of United Latin American Citizens or LULAK, the largest
and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States. Rick is
retired now, but for decades he worked in the oil
industry as an environmental consultant. For him, the oil industry
(13:34):
means employment.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
The fact that carbon capture keeps oil and gas going
in California, we're happy for that because we see the
benefits to the communities as far as jobs go.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Even of temporary Rick said. See the carbon Terravault one
project at the center of the story is expected to
create only about ten permanent positions and around eighty separate
temporary construction at the start. According to government data, only
three percent of jobs in Cerrent County are directly related
(14:07):
to oil and gas companies. That's about thirteen hundred people,
and just under half of those positions are held by Latinos.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
There's many examples just right here in Button Willow of
kids from that came from farm labor backgrounds and they
were able to establish themselves, you know, either in solar
projects or wind or oil and gas, and we view
this carbon capture is another avenue for those type of jobs.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Not everyone agrees that carbon capture is a generator of
green jobs.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
It had been built as a climate solution, but this
is truly at its core and oil production subsidy.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
This is Maggie Coulter. She's a senior attorney at the
Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. Maggie
takes issue at the way the federal government has been
promoting carbon capture and storage through a tax credit called
forty five Q. I know this is starting to sound
(15:14):
like an episode of severance, but stay with me. With
forty five Q, private companies get a tax break when
they take CO two and store it underground. But for Maggie,
the problem is that no one's actually checking that the
CO two is really being put away.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
They're relying on either the company submitting independent third party
verification of the storage or a self certified verification that's
submitted to the EPA.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
The IRS relies on the Environmental Protection Agency for verification,
but the EPA doesn't have a mandate to do an
independent verification, so they simply don't do it.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
So there's really no true verification of the actual sequestration.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
It's a system based on trust, and that trust alone
it doesn't always work. A twenty twenty investigation by the
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that almost a
billion dollars had been improperly claimed under the forty five
Q tax credit one billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
And nothing has changed in the reporting mechanism since that investigation.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And there's more. Under the tax credit, companies can use
the CO two. They capture the CO two that they're
supposed to turn into liquid and store safely underground for
at least one hundred years, they can use that to
actually pull more oil from the ground.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
It's injected into an existing oil well and used as
a surfactant to scrub out additional oil in what's calling
enhanced oil recovery.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
If you're confused, you're not alone. It took me a second,
Okay more than a second to process that the same
carbon dioxide that these private companies are saying they're trapping
to keep it away from us and getting massive tax
credits and doing so, they're not actually getting rid of
the carbon. They're in fact using it to pump more oil.
(17:16):
Around eighty percent of the money claimed under this program
has been used for enhanced oil recovery, or as Maggie
plainly put it earlier, a subsidy for oil production. The
irony wasn't lost on California lawmakers, so in twenty twenty two,
the state passed the law banning the use of carbon
(17:39):
capture for enhanced oil recovery. But Trump's One Big Beautiful
Act expanded the forty five C credit so that companies
can get more money if they use the COEO too,
they capture specifically for enhanced oil recovery.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
Why we're giving a tax credit for a production of
a pollutant. It's almost like a climate fraud. There's no
proof that any of this technology is actually benefiting our atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Last year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
estimated that taxpayers could be handing over eight hundred billion
dollars to private oil companies under this tax credit. That's
almost three times California state budget for the next fiscal year.
(18:30):
Last October, the Kerrent County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved
the permit for the Carbon Terable one project.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
On favor or please guests your votes the motion has
approved all eyes.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
A few months later, the EPA also approved the project.
The permit allows the California Resources Corporation to inject CO
two into the Elk Hills oil field for twenty six
years before they can start the project. The EPA required
the company to seal two hundred wells where carbon dioxide
(19:07):
is expected to migrate during the project, two hundred out
of thousands of existing wells in that field.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
We'll be right back. Hey, we're back. Here's producer Victory
Estra with the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Since at least the nineteen sixties, oil and gas companies
had known that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change,
but they work to keep this from the public. They
undermined the negative effects. Instead went on a pr campaign
to tout their environmental efforts, like this chevron ad from
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 8 (20:08):
On the coast of California, Will big jets reach for
the sky and one of the smallest endangered species quietly
reaches for its dinner on land that's part of an
oil refinery.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The video assumes in on a very small blue butterfly.
It looks like a cross between a nature video and
tourism ad.
Speaker 8 (20:29):
People who work there protect the area and plant buckwet.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Fast forward to today, and oil companies are evolving their campaigns,
from explicit denial of the science of climate change to
misleading information about their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This was a finding in a twenty twenty four report
that came out of a three year investigation by Democratic
(20:55):
staff of the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Budget Committee.
The report was called Denial, Disinformation, and doublespeak Big Oil's
evolving efforts to avoid accountability for climate change. The report
says that oil companies are presenting carbon capture to the
public as a viable solution to greenhouse gas emissions without
(21:18):
acknowledging all of the issues with the technology. These private
oil companies are forking up huge sums of money for
extensive media campaigns promoting this technology.
Speaker 7 (21:31):
The wor all needs ways to reduce carbon emissions. We
are working on solutions in our own operations, like carbon capture.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
While this is our front facing stance. The report shows
that behind closed doors, companies talk about carbon capture as
a way to prolong the use of fossil fuels. They
also recognize that it's costly to scale. Internal documents subpoenut
by Congress show oil companies aren't willing to invest in
the technology to actually make this a climate solution, and
(22:04):
instead are pursuing taxpayer dollars for these projects, even though
in recent years fossil fuel companies have reported tens of
billions of dollars in record profits. After the incident in Satarsha, Mississippi,
(22:27):
California put in place a partial moratorium on CO two
pipeline construction until new federal guidelines were published. For now,
California Resources Corporation, the company behind the carbon project in
the Central Valley, can only build pipelines to transport CO
two within their own property. But after the Trump administration
(22:49):
didn't allow for new regulations, there's been pressure on the
state Congress to lift the moratorium.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
We feel that momentum is there and the moratorium should
be lifted later this year.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
This is audio from an earnings call of the California
Resources Corporation.
Speaker 7 (23:05):
So once that unlocks, then the ability to talk about
a meters, to be able to talk about the business
model is going to start.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Crystallizing a lot more.
Speaker 7 (23:14):
But we need that physical connectivity that comes with two
pipelines being approved.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Right now, there are fifteen carbon capture plants already operating
in a handful of states, in the US, including Texas
and Wyoming, but so far the results are not impressive.
These facilities only capture less than half of one percent
of the country's total emissions.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Here in the Central Valley. It's kind of a sacrifice
zone for the rest of California.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
This is says that again with the nonprofit Central California
Environmental Justice Network, a coalition of organizations including CESSAS, sued
Current County over the recent permits.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
It's always in the Central Valley. It's always in the
rural communities. It's always where they see so little value
in the lives of the people that live inside those
communities to say, hey, you know what, we should make
sure that something safe and find better alternatives before we
treat you like guinea pigs.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The question lingers whether carbon capture and storage is an
effective way to deal with the climate crisis. A study
of these projects from around the world has shown that
most of them can be considered failures, either because they
significantly underperform in their CO two capture goals or because
they shut down after a few years of operation.
Speaker 6 (24:35):
People kind of feel like, well, we're being treated like
a dump, right, That's why is it that they have
to put it underneath us. Why wouldn't they put this
in richer neighborhoods.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
We reached out to the current county Planning and Natural
Resources Department for this story, and they reply that they
don't comment on projects that are in litigation. The EPA,
for its part, said that they only review whether a
project in dangers under ground sources of drinking water. Anything
else is outside of their scope. The California Resources Corporation
(25:08):
didn't reply to our request for comment for the story.
At one of the public hearings that were held last
year to discuss the Carbon Terrible One project in Kerrent County,
there was a lot of debate about the possible jobs
and tax revenue this could create versus the dangers and
(25:31):
uncertainty of carbon capture.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
This project is focused on improving the environment. I already
have in my family.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Children work cancert with asthma, even congenital.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
There'll be jobs that last for years and years.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I understand the need for work, but enough is enough.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Between all the back and forth, a young community member
made his way up to the podium, and that really
put things into perspective.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
I want this to happen because us. It's scary because oh,
that's why you cannot breathe and you can maybe pass
or setting. So we don't want that happen. We just
don't want that happen because we won't all want to
stay here.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Unwittingly, that kid may have spoken on behalf of his
future children or grandchildren. We won't be here to see
all of the consequences of the decisions made today trying
to address the climate crisis, but they surely will.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
This episode was produced by Victoria Strada. It was edited
by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. It was mixed by Julia Caruso.
Fact checking for this episode by Roxanna Aguire. Fernando Echavari
is our managing editor. The Latino USA team also includes
Jessica Ellis Rinaldo, Leanoz Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Luis Luna Biori,
(27:22):
mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, JJ Carubin,
and Nancy Trujillo. Our intern is Diego Perdomo, Benni Leamres
and I are co executive producers and I'm your host
Mariano JSA. Latino USA is part of Iheart's Michael Dura
Podcast Network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and
(27:46):
Arlene Santana. Join us again on our next episode. In
the meantime, I'll see you on all of our social
media and remember Gerido Guerida. Join Futuro Plus. You'll be
able to listen to the show at free, and you'll
get bonus episodes, plus cheese me and by joining, you'll
be supporting the kind of reporting that you love. So
join Vutru plus US Yes and Noebay Yes.
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Futuro investigates Investia.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Dear Latino USA listener, before we start, you should know
that if you want to listen to this episode ad free,
just join plus and you can join for as little
as seven dollars a month. Joining also gets you behind
the scenes access and yes, some cheese may so click
the link in the episode description and after you do that,
(00:40):
then click play. Let's go to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
We're still following breaking news of a major gas league
in Yazoo County in your Highway four thirty three and Highway.
At around seven pm on a Saturday in late February,
residents of the small village of Starsha in Mississippi heard
a loud boom, the major gas lake in Yazoo Counties
and a whole town fleeing their homes after heavy rains.
(01:12):
A pipeline carrying carbon dioxide or CO two ruptured. Ten
minutes after the rupture, the private company that ran the
pipelines close the main operating valves Forsatarsha, but in those
ten minutes, more than thirty thousand barrels of CO two
have been released into the air. Now residents started experiencing
(01:36):
symptoms and called nine.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
One one I don't know if CONN they busted it, whatever,
but it's kind.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Of My daughter had breathing problem.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
She's on the floor right now.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
We'll got here. CO two is an asphyxient At high concentrations,
you can't breathe.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Its crowd, you know bad in here.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
The pipeline company didn't immediately notify local authorities about what
had happened, so first responders reacted without having all the details.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yes, we've got a ghastly up payer.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
CO two displaces oxygen, so combustion engines like the ones
in regular vehicles don't work properly. In the event of
a CO two leak, Satasha ambulances had trouble responding to calls.
Some residents had to drive themselves to the hospital. In total,
(02:38):
forty five people were hospitalized for CO two poisoning that day,
and at least two hundred had to be evacuated. Years later,
some of Satasha's residents still report health problems related to
the gas leak. After the Satarsha incident, there was a
(03:04):
two year investigation by the federal government, which found that
there were glaring gaps in how CO two pipelines were regulated,
so the government started working on new rules. By January
of this year, five years after the incident, there was
finally an official proposal with new regulations that would prevent
something like this from happening again, but the Trump administration
(03:29):
quickly rescinded them before they went into effect. Satarsha is
an example of what can happen when a CO two
pipeline ruptures and leaks, and in the years to come,
there could be tens of thousands more of these pipelines.
That's because private companies want to build them for something
(03:49):
called carbon capture and storage, which I'll get into later,
but it's essentially a way to trap CO two to
keep it from going up in the atmosphere as a gas.
The plans include California, one of the most environmentally regulated states.
And here's something to keep in mind. There's a federal
tax credit that helps fund carbon capture and storage projects.
(04:12):
And hear this. The Trump Administration's Big Beautiful Bill is
getting rid of or phasing out most environmentally friendly programs,
but not this one. In fact, the bill is not
only keeping it, it's going to expand it because depending
on who you ask, this is a critical way to
(04:33):
address the climate crisis or a subsidy for big oil.
So we're going to California's Central Valley, where there's a
plan to build CO two pipelines. Many in the community
are afraid of its risks and unsure if it's benefits.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
From Fudromdia. It's Latino USA im Maria no Josa Today,
producer of Victoria Estrada, brings us a deep look into
carbon capture. It's a controversial technology that addresses the climate crisis,
and we look at how it's being tested in California.
(05:23):
In twenty twenty four, the planet reached an all time
high of carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide or CO two, has
been proven to be one of the main factors that's
contributing to the planets warming. California, which is the fourth
largest economy in the world, has vowed to go carbon
(05:43):
neutral by twenty forty five. That means that it will
remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as it releases.
To achieve that goal, specialized technologies are coming into the state,
including the one we mentioned, carbon capture and storage. Latino
USA producer Victoria Estrada traveled to California Central Valley. That's
(06:07):
the place where many new carbon capture projects are being proposed,
and Victoria brings us this story.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I turned onto Buttonwellow Road, which turns into Elkell Road.
Kerr County is at the southernmost part of California Central Valley,
about two hours north of Los Angeles. This is fertile land.
Kerrent County alone produces almost all of the carrots weed
in the United States. More than half of the population
(06:37):
here is Latino and a lot of them work in
the fields. There's a lot of trees. I'm not sure
what kind of fruit trees they are. There's another industry
that's also very present.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Oil.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, that's the first wall. As I drove through the
Elk Hills oil field, I saw hills covered in pump
jacks machines that pull oil from the wells. Looks like
watching a dinosaur, you know. They're metal and look kind
of like giant hammers or pick axis with a polly
(07:12):
attached to one end of the head. I drove through
here because this is a place where the first carbon
capture and storage project in all of California is slated
to go up. The project is owned by the California
Resources Corporation, which is the largest oil and gas company
in the State. They're calling this project carbon terra vault Ie.
(07:37):
So what exactly is carbon capture and storage? Let me explain.
Let's say you've got a coal fired power plant or
a natural gas plant that's emitting carbon dioxide, and on
top of the factory's chimney where the smoke comes out,
you put equipment to trap the CO two. Once captured,
(07:59):
the CO two go through a chemical process and it's
turned from gas into a type of liquid that you
can then inject underground to store Here in el Kills.
The plan is to put the liquid CO two in
the underground deposits that used to hold oil, hopefully permanently
or at least for hundreds of years. Some people in
(08:25):
the community are nervous about the project, in part because
of oil companies behind it.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
We grow up with oil and gas wells in our
backyards next to schools.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
This is CSA Aguirri. He works at the Central California
Environmental Justice Network in Bakersfield, Kerrent County's largest city.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
There's so much cut corners in California oil and gas
law and enforcement.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
He's seen firsthand how government regulations aren't always enough to
keep oil companies in check.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
The number One issue for a lot of government agencies
is capacity, and they don't have the manpower, they don't
have the hours, they don't have the needed tools in
order to properly inspect and respond to leaks because of
the vast amount of infrastructure that exists.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And looking at the possibility of a local carbon capture
project is making him recap the drawbacks of living in
a place with a strong oil industry.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
In twenty fourteen, there was a pipeline leak that caused
eight families to be evacuated for nine months from their homes.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And we have breaking news out of Arvin tonight where
several homes have been evacuated due to a potentially dangerous
gas leak. Flammable gases, including methane, had been accumulating underneath
the soil and started spreading to the houses.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Officials don't know how long the company's pipeline has been leaking.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
And the gas leak it was discovered coming out of
the outlets of a room of a woman that was pregnant.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Residents in this neighborhood behind me say that they could
smell gas for several days.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
One in that house has chronic bloody noses or allergies.
One of the people that was living inside of that
house has lung cancer.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
This wasn't an isolated event, says that and his team
have documented other leaks in Current County that want to
notice for months, even years, and the gas leaks, along
with other pollutants from the oil and agriculture industries, have
turned Current County into the place with the worst air
quality in the country. Kurrent County's Planning and Natural Resources
(10:35):
departments said they're imposing more than ninety measures to mitigate
risks on the Carbon Terrible project to prevent anything like
what happened in Mississippi. But since carving capture is an
industrial and chemical process that releases.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
Other pollutants, one of the biggest concerns is how is
this going to add to our pollution burden.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
There's also issues with the place where Carbon Terra Vault
is supposed to store the CO two Because there's so
many wells in the Elk Hills oil field, CO two
could leak through any unused well that hasn't been properly sealed.
Plus this is a seismic area. Geologists estimate that there's
a twenty percent chance that an earthquake could damage the
(11:19):
project in the next hundred years. So despite all of
these questions, if this is a way to address the
climate crisis, our carbon capture projects worth it.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
We actually have no information about the amount of money
that the American tacpayer is paying for this purported climate solution,
and whether or not it's a good deal, Like, are
we getting anything for it?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
That's after the break.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Stay with us. Yes, hey, we're back. And before the break,
(12:23):
we heard about a technology coming to California's Central Valley.
It's called carbon capture and storage. Supporters say it's a
way to address the climate crisis, but for others it
simply has way too many potentially deadly risks that the
New USA producer Victori Esta that is going to continue
the reporting now.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Carbon capture has been presented as a win win solution
for the climate crisis. It removes CO two from the atmosphere,
it creates jobs, and it makes the oil industry, which
the country still relies on, heavily clean up.
Speaker 7 (13:00):
There's dangers, there's concerns in every project in every kind
of industry, But if you're mitigating those is worth that
risk to supply jobs to people that need them.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Rick Garcia is president of the local chapter of the
League of United Latin American Citizens or LULAK, the largest
and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States. Rick is
retired now, but for decades he worked in the oil
industry as an environmental consultant. For him, the oil industry
(13:34):
means employment.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
The fact that carbon capture keeps oil and gas going
in California, we're happy for that because we see the
benefits to the communities as far as jobs go.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Even of temporary Rick said. See the carbon Terravault one
project at the center of the story is expected to
create only about ten permanent positions and around eighty separate
temporary construction at the start. According to government data, only
three percent of jobs in Cerrent County are directly related
(14:07):
to oil and gas companies. That's about thirteen hundred people,
and just under half of those positions are held by Latinos.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
There's many examples just right here in Button Willow of
kids from that came from farm labor backgrounds and they
were able to establish themselves, you know, either in solar
projects or wind or oil and gas, and we view
this carbon capture is another avenue for those type of jobs.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Not everyone agrees that carbon capture is a generator of
green jobs.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
It had been built as a climate solution, but this
is truly at its core and oil production subsidy.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
This is Maggie Coulter. She's a senior attorney at the
Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. Maggie
takes issue at the way the federal government has been
promoting carbon capture and storage through a tax credit called
forty five Q. I know this is starting to sound
(15:14):
like an episode of severance, but stay with me. With
forty five Q, private companies get a tax break when
they take CO two and store it underground. But for Maggie,
the problem is that no one's actually checking that the
CO two is really being put away.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
They're relying on either the company submitting independent third party
verification of the storage or a self certified verification that's
submitted to the EPA.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
The IRS relies on the Environmental Protection Agency for verification,
but the EPA doesn't have a mandate to do an
independent verification, so they simply don't do it.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
So there's really no true verification of the actual sequestration.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
It's a system based on trust, and that trust alone
it doesn't always work. A twenty twenty investigation by the
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that almost a
billion dollars had been improperly claimed under the forty five
Q tax credit one billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
And nothing has changed in the reporting mechanism since that investigation.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And there's more. Under the tax credit, companies can use
the CO two. They capture the CO two that they're
supposed to turn into liquid and store safely underground for
at least one hundred years, they can use that to
actually pull more oil from the ground.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
It's injected into an existing oil well and used as
a surfactant to scrub out additional oil in what's calling
enhanced oil recovery.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
If you're confused, you're not alone. It took me a second,
Okay more than a second to process that the same
carbon dioxide that these private companies are saying they're trapping
to keep it away from us and getting massive tax
credits and doing so, they're not actually getting rid of
the carbon. They're in fact using it to pump more oil.
(17:16):
Around eighty percent of the money claimed under this program
has been used for enhanced oil recovery, or as Maggie
plainly put it earlier, a subsidy for oil production. The
irony wasn't lost on California lawmakers, so in twenty twenty two,
the state passed the law banning the use of carbon
(17:39):
capture for enhanced oil recovery. But Trump's One Big Beautiful
Act expanded the forty five C credit so that companies
can get more money if they use the COEO too,
they capture specifically for enhanced oil recovery.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
Why we're giving a tax credit for a production of
a pollutant. It's almost like a climate fraud. There's no
proof that any of this technology is actually benefiting our atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Last year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
estimated that taxpayers could be handing over eight hundred billion
dollars to private oil companies under this tax credit. That's
almost three times California state budget for the next fiscal year.
(18:30):
Last October, the Kerrent County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved
the permit for the Carbon Terable one project.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
On favor or please guests your votes the motion has
approved all eyes.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
A few months later, the EPA also approved the project.
The permit allows the California Resources Corporation to inject CO
two into the Elk Hills oil field for twenty six
years before they can start the project. The EPA required
the company to seal two hundred wells where carbon dioxide
(19:07):
is expected to migrate during the project, two hundred out
of thousands of existing wells in that field.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
We'll be right back. Hey, we're back. Here's producer Victory
Estra with the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Since at least the nineteen sixties, oil and gas companies
had known that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change,
but they work to keep this from the public. They
undermined the negative effects. Instead went on a pr campaign
to tout their environmental efforts, like this chevron ad from
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 8 (20:08):
On the coast of California, Will big jets reach for
the sky and one of the smallest endangered species quietly
reaches for its dinner on land that's part of an
oil refinery.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The video assumes in on a very small blue butterfly.
It looks like a cross between a nature video and
tourism ad.
Speaker 8 (20:29):
People who work there protect the area and plant buckwet.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Fast forward to today, and oil companies are evolving their campaigns,
from explicit denial of the science of climate change to
misleading information about their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This was a finding in a twenty twenty four report
that came out of a three year investigation by Democratic
(20:55):
staff of the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Budget Committee.
The report was called Denial, Disinformation, and doublespeak Big Oil's
evolving efforts to avoid accountability for climate change. The report
says that oil companies are presenting carbon capture to the
public as a viable solution to greenhouse gas emissions without
(21:18):
acknowledging all of the issues with the technology. These private
oil companies are forking up huge sums of money for
extensive media campaigns promoting this technology.
Speaker 7 (21:31):
The wor all needs ways to reduce carbon emissions. We
are working on solutions in our own operations, like carbon capture.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
While this is our front facing stance. The report shows
that behind closed doors, companies talk about carbon capture as
a way to prolong the use of fossil fuels. They
also recognize that it's costly to scale. Internal documents subpoenut
by Congress show oil companies aren't willing to invest in
the technology to actually make this a climate solution, and
(22:04):
instead are pursuing taxpayer dollars for these projects, even though
in recent years fossil fuel companies have reported tens of
billions of dollars in record profits. After the incident in Satarsha, Mississippi,
(22:27):
California put in place a partial moratorium on CO two
pipeline construction until new federal guidelines were published. For now,
California Resources Corporation, the company behind the carbon project in
the Central Valley, can only build pipelines to transport CO
two within their own property. But after the Trump administration
(22:49):
didn't allow for new regulations, there's been pressure on the
state Congress to lift the moratorium.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
We feel that momentum is there and the moratorium should
be lifted later this year.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
This is audio from an earnings call of the California
Resources Corporation.
Speaker 7 (23:05):
So once that unlocks, then the ability to talk about
a meters, to be able to talk about the business
model is going to start.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Crystallizing a lot more.
Speaker 7 (23:14):
But we need that physical connectivity that comes with two
pipelines being approved.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Right now, there are fifteen carbon capture plants already operating
in a handful of states, in the US, including Texas
and Wyoming, but so far the results are not impressive.
These facilities only capture less than half of one percent
of the country's total emissions.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Here in the Central Valley. It's kind of a sacrifice
zone for the rest of California.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
This is says that again with the nonprofit Central California
Environmental Justice Network, a coalition of organizations including CESSAS, sued
Current County over the recent permits.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
It's always in the Central Valley. It's always in the
rural communities. It's always where they see so little value
in the lives of the people that live inside those
communities to say, hey, you know what, we should make
sure that something safe and find better alternatives before we
treat you like guinea pigs.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The question lingers whether carbon capture and storage is an
effective way to deal with the climate crisis. A study
of these projects from around the world has shown that
most of them can be considered failures, either because they
significantly underperform in their CO two capture goals or because
they shut down after a few years of operation.
Speaker 6 (24:35):
People kind of feel like, well, we're being treated like
a dump, right, That's why is it that they have
to put it underneath us. Why wouldn't they put this
in richer neighborhoods.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
We reached out to the current county Planning and Natural
Resources Department for this story, and they reply that they
don't comment on projects that are in litigation. The EPA,
for its part, said that they only review whether a
project in dangers under ground sources of drinking water. Anything
else is outside of their scope. The California Resources Corporation
(25:08):
didn't reply to our request for comment for the story.
At one of the public hearings that were held last
year to discuss the Carbon Terrible One project in Kerrent County,
there was a lot of debate about the possible jobs
and tax revenue this could create versus the dangers and
(25:31):
uncertainty of carbon capture.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
This project is focused on improving the environment. I already
have in my family.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Children work cancert with asthma, even congenital.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
There'll be jobs that last for years and years.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I understand the need for work, but enough is enough.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Between all the back and forth, a young community member
made his way up to the podium, and that really
put things into perspective.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
I want this to happen because us. It's scary because oh,
that's why you cannot breathe and you can maybe pass
or setting. So we don't want that happen. We just
don't want that happen because we won't all want to
stay here.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Unwittingly, that kid may have spoken on behalf of his
future children or grandchildren. We won't be here to see
all of the consequences of the decisions made today trying
to address the climate crisis, but they surely will.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
This episode was produced by Victoria Strada. It was edited
by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. It was mixed by Julia Caruso.
Fact checking for this episode by Roxanna Aguire. Fernando Echavari
is our managing editor. The Latino USA team also includes
Jessica Ellis Rinaldo, Leanoz Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Luis Luna Biori,
(27:22):
mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, JJ Carubin,
and Nancy Trujillo. Our intern is Diego Perdomo, Benni Leamres
and I are co executive producers and I'm your host
Mariano JSA. Latino USA is part of Iheart's Michael Dura
Podcast Network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and
(27:46):
Arlene Santana. Join us again on our next episode. In
the meantime, I'll see you on all of our social
media and remember Gerido Guerida. Join Futuro Plus. You'll be
able to listen to the show at free, and you'll
get bonus episodes, plus cheese me and by joining, you'll
be supporting the kind of reporting that you love. So
join Vutru plus US Yes and Noebay Yes.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Annie E.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Casey Foundation.
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Creates a brighter future for the nation's children by strengthening families,
building greater economic opportunity, and transforming communities.
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Latino USA's coverage of a culture of Health is made
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