Local college in Bakersfield has made an agreement with a well-known laboratory foundation in Northern California that could advance local efforts to create a carbon-management hub that benefits Kern County’s economy.
Local College Partnership
On Tuesday, the news release said the new partnership which is between BC and the Livermore Lab Foundation is going to provide scientific-technical assistance, community education, and workforce development. Also, it has been said the arrangement is going to support state and local efforts to actually fight climate change through work like carbon dioxide removal and storage.
Moreover, the collaboration does build on BC’s creation last fall of the Valley Strong Energy Institute. Also with the college’s relationship with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Plus, it could fit well with a series of carbon capture and burial initiatives that are being pursued by local industry and county government.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
In fact, the foundation is the nonprofit behind Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 2020, a study was releasing saying California can achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. This would be in part by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Than to bury it in underground oil formations in Kern. They are well-suiting to the purpose. Plus, several local oil producers have since gone and proposed building such installations.
Therefore, BC did say its new partnership with the foundation is going to connect top scientists with the college’s students. It would provide research expertise, also grant application assistance, plus help with regional initiatives. Moreover, it did say scientists at Lawrence Livermore are going to serve on the Valley Strong Institute’s advisory committee. Then they would support other task forces to keep the carbon management near the top of the local policy agendas.
A staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore, in an understatement of the challenges ahead, Kimberley Mayfield, called California’s carbon neutrality goal “ambitious.”
“Also, it will require innovation and implementation of both the existing and new technologies,” Mayfield said in the release. “Therefore, we look forward to working collaboratively with Bakersfield College. Also, there are others in the greater Kern County region to help achieve these goals.”
