KERN COUNTY — California Resources Corporation began injecting carbon dioxide underneath its own oil field in Kern County in May 2025, marking the launch of CarbonTerraVault I, the state's first operational carbon dioxide injection project. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Kern County permitted the project over several years.

The carbon stored by the project originates from a natural gas-processing plant owned by California Resources Corporation. This plant strips carbon dioxide from gas produced by wells at the nearby Elk Hills oil field, which continues to produce oil and gas. The project is designed to send up to 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year to the storage site, with an overall storage capacity of 38 million tons of carbon dioxide for millennia.

Following the project's approval, environmental groups filed a lawsuit alleging that Kern County's environmental review was insufficient. Michelle Ghafar, an attorney for Earthjustice representing these groups, stated that the project should be halted until the county and the company address alleged issues in the environmental assessment. "It's a blueprint," Ghafar said. "We want to set an example here so that we're not seeing a bunch of bad projects move forward." The lawsuit claims that Kern County did not properly assess potential pollution and environmental impacts from speculative industrial developments. California Resources Corporation did not respond to an inquiry regarding the litigation.

California finalized regulations governing carbon pipelines within the state recently. Carbon pipelines were previously prohibited in California. The Office of the State Fire Marshal crafted these new regulations in collaboration with a workgroup that included pipeline operators, local governments, energy regulators, and safety advocates. The new requirements mandate automatic public notifications in the event of a pipeline rupture or potential rupture, public engagement during pipeline proposal and construction, and training for emergency responders in nearby jurisdictions.

Amanda McKay, state policy adviser at the Pipeline Safety Trust, stated that her organization, which participated in the workgroup, views the new rules as a major improvement in carbon pipeline safety in California. "The rules represent a major improvement in carbon pipeline safety in California," McKay said. "But I hope the state will strengthen them in future rounds of rulemaking." The Central California Environmental Justice Network, a litigant in the TerraVault project challenge, urged regulators to require operators to distribute carbon dioxide monitors and air supply respirators to communities near pipelines and to restrict how close pipelines could be routed near schools and homes. The final rules encourage pipelines to be routed as far as practicable from sensitive facilities like schools and healthcare centers but do not require operators to use an odorant.