Chevron pumps out some 180, 000 barrels every day from 100-year-old fields like Kern River in the San Joaquin Valley.

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One of the more ambitious acquisitions was made by Warren Buffett's Mid-American Energy, which purchased the Kern River pipeline in 2002.

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The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club had also sued Kern County last October over its green-lighting of the 300-megawatt North Sky River project.

FORBES: Green Groups Sue To Stop California Wind Project That Threatens Condor

In October 2012, The Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club, filed suit in the Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield, California to reopen an environmental review of a 100-turbine North Sky River wind project and a smaller adjacent Jawbone project in the mountains north of the Mojave Desert over threats to California condors.

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