There's a move afoot to turn Kern County into an epicenter of alternate energy. Who's spearheading this forward thinking, environmentally friendly effort? The City of Bakersfield? The County?
Noooo....
It's the oil companies!
What kind of a crazy, mixed up world is it when the most progressive element of society is Chevron? It's Bako!
Already a consortium of companies operate one of the largest wind farms east of the city in the Tehachapi Mountains. And Chevron is in the process of turning an abandoned oil refinery near the heart of Bako into a state-of-the-art solar energy field.
And the response from the city? Indifference at best, and contempt at worst. On a news report regarding the solar plant, they interviewed a city official who gave grudging support for the project, but then stated that the land would have been better used for new homes.
Let's forget for a moment that there are currently thousands of unsold or half constructed new homes, slowly rotting away in the former fields on the outskirts of town. Let's focus on the fact that this is an abandoned oil refinery. Chevron and it's predecessors have been dumping God knows what on the property for a hundred years. It's a toxic waste dump. And this guy wants to just bulldoze it all and slap up new homes. I can't say I'm surprised, but still. That's going to take some savvy marketing to try and convince new home buyers that birth defects are an upgrade, like granite counters. Even Chevron knows this - it would take hundreds of millions of dollars to try and clean it up, if it's even possible. So rather than deal with it, they turned it into something productive and won some attaboys in the process. And some nifty tax beaks to boot.
I got a first hand look at Bakersfield's bizarre outlook on the future when, in an ironic twist of fate, I was hired to design a brochure hawking all the economic opportunities Bakersfield has to offer.
Because, as we all know, I'm one of Bako's biggest boosters.
Needless to say, it was a very thin brochure. Thankfully I was able to work from home, so only the dogs heard me laugh out loud as I read through the copy.
When I got to the section on Technology, it wasn't as if solar and wind power were ignored - both received a single sentence mention. But the bulk of the copy dealt with a new, emerging, high tech field...
Space Tourism!
"Tourism" seems a bit of stretch, unless "up" is now considered a destination.
You see, the sprawling Edwards Air Force Base lies out in the eastern desert of Kern County. And it's there that Sir Richard Branson has chosen to base his new venture, Virgin Galactic. Where the plan is to offer people a chance to soar into space on a little astronaut outing.
For $200,000 a pop.
One day.
In the future.
Maybe.
And it is here that the city and county have chosen to place their bets. Doubling down on the notion that the millionaires and celebrities who could afford such a venture can be lured into town for maybe a quick bite at Carrows or a night at the Doubletree. It's stunning in it's stupidity.
Perhaps it's time for a new slogan...
"Bakersfield - Where Forward Thinking Is Ass Backwards".
