oil and gas

California’s first commercial carbon-storage project is operating even though the state has yet to adopt rules required by law, 19 months after a key deadline.

Environmentalists question how regulators will keep tabs on oil well incidents after Gov. Gavin Newsom amended state law to increase production following a three-year moratorium on new drilling permits.

Kern County isn't the only one to claim the title, which has been in use for close 90 years.

It was the biggest scandal involving the executive branch before Watergate, and it had roots in a Kern County oil field.

In May 1899, James and Jonathan Ellwood discovered oil on the north side of the Kern River, setting off an oil boom that transformed Bakersfield and Kern County.

The Yokuts used petroleum from natural oil seeps for thousands of years before the modern oil and gas industry.

California Water Service Co., which manages water service in that area, reported the source of the oil was a nearby crude oil storage facility.

The ruling found the county's environmental review didn't go far enough to protect farmland, groundwater and communities living within a few hundred feet of oil and gas production.

The first carbon storage facility in Kern County, California, will only produce a handful of permanent positions.

Kern County is California's largest oil producer and a top producer of agricultural products. But climate change — and the state’s effort to mitigate it — pose a threat to those economic mainstays.