An Oil Field Became California’s First Carbon Vault. Who’s Responsible if Something Goes Wrong?

An oil pump at the Elk Hills Power Station along Elk Hills Road on March 29, 2024. The Elk Hills oil field is the site of the new carbon capture project that captures carbon emissions from oil and gas facilities and then injects them underground. In May, California’s largest oil producer, California Resources Corp., began burying carbon at Elk Hills, a vast, century-old oil field in rural Kern County. State leaders have championed the Elk Hills project. First: A worker opens a wellhead valve on a well for the first injection at the CRC carbon storage project in the Elk Hills oil field.