Lorelei Oviatt, director of the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, spoke about Kern County’s role as an energy leader at the Kern Economic Development Corporation’s Kern Energy Summit 2021.

Lorelei Oviatt, director of the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, spoke about Kern County’s landmark environmental protections for oil and gas production and working together towards California’s energy transition at the 2021 Kern Energy Summit.

“Kern County is an energy county that should design its own future with the help of our local business and community partners,” Lorelei Oviatt, director of the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, told the audience at the 2021 Kern Energy Summit hosted by Kern Economic Development Corporation.

She noted that in the face of State and Federal energy policies that “are intent on forcing outcomes rather than creating partnership and opportunities,” under the Kern County Board of Supervisors leadership, Kern County’s energy sector had expanded wind and solar to become the #1 county in California for renewables and implemented the most environmentally protective local permitting for the oil and gas industry.

With its proven track record of economic and energy diversification, Oviatt told the crowd that Kern County can become the Clean Energy and Carbon Management Center of Excellence for California by 2030, if we all work together for a clean energy future to ensure that “no one and nothing is left out.”  

Read Oviatt’s full speech here.