Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the selection of Aera Federal LLC to begin award negotiations, valued at $4.5 mln, to conduct a feasibility study for a regional direct air capture (DAC) hub at the Belridge oil field in Kern County, California. In response, Aera Federal, a subsidiary of Aera, released the following statements:

Aera Federal and our partners Battelle, Mosaic Materials and Carbon Capture are excited to work with the Department of Energy to bring our proposed direct air capture (DAC) hub one step closer to reality. DAC is a promising technology that can lead to large-scale carbon removal right here in Kern County where we have the technical expertise, workforce and infrastructure to successfully bring this project online.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone,” said Aera Energy President and CEO Erik Bartsch. “By integrating technologies like DAC with existing assets on the ground and other decarbonizing facilities to come, we can make real progress toward achieving California’s carbon neutrality goals while creating new jobs and opportunities in Kern County.”