When is an increase of half a million tons per year of CO2 insignificant?
Bakersfield's industries are bracing for the upcoming requirements of the California Air Resources Board's (ARB) new Cap and Trade regulations. Soon, those industries that emit over 25,000 metric tons per year of greenhouse gases (GHG) will see their allowed emissions, or "cap," be reduced every year until targeted levels are reached.
However, those requirements don't seem to matter much in the everyday world of local air permitting. For example, the San Joaquin Valley APCD has asked for public comments on a few new oil development projects for which they are about to issue permits. As part of the review process for CEQA purposes, the APCD has stated that these projects pose no significant environmental impacts and as a result has proposed Negative Declarations for the projects.
For example, Chevron has proposed an expansion of its thermally enhanced crude oil operations in the Cymric oilfield. According to the APCD's Negative Declaration , eleven new gas fired steam generators will be installed (total heat input = 912.5 MMBTU/Hr). The generators will result in emission increases of VOC (21.99 tons/yr), NOx (33.98 tons/yr), and PM10 (12.8 tons/yr). Because those increases exceed allowable levels, Chevron will offset those increases with emission reduction credits (ERCs) at a 1.5:1 ratio.