![]() Wyoming is considering several million dollars in additional funding for a well plugging program. North Dakota allocated $66 million of its federal stimulus funding to plug roughly 400 wells and employ 1,000 laid off oil workers. IOGCC notes multiple states have existing programs to plug abandoned wells, plugging 3,400 wells in 2018. States have also begun similar programs, albeit on a much smaller scale. Resources for the Future aims even higher, proposing the federal government fund a program to plug up to 500,000 abandoned wells at a cost of up to $24 billion, estimating it would create up to 120,000 jobs nationwide for laid-off oil and gas workers. Greenpeace estimates more than half of America’s unplugged wells are in just three states (Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas), with a large majority of all abandoned wells concentrated in just 15 states, and proposed a $4 billion funding stream across five years to plug 250,000 abandoned wells. The Center for American Progress proposed Congress create a $2 billion fund to plug abandoned wells, estimating it could remediate 57,000 wells and support up to 24,000 jobs in energy producing states. A 2019 report from IOGCC proposed amending the Oil Pollution Act to direct funding to plugging abandoned wells across 30 states, but this proposal was never acted upon.Įnvironmental organizations have also endorsed the proposal at various levels of effort. In May, the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), which represents oil and gas regulators from 31 states, proposed the Trump administration enact a federal well cleanup program using funding from the federal stimulus package. Considering at least 100,000 oil and gas well workers are out of work and the federal government spent $3 trillion on a first round of COVID-19 stimulus, $435 billion to plug abandoned wells using out-of-work employees who know how to do the work appears relatively modest. We need a federal program to plug abandoned wells, for climate and the economyīut while the oil and gas industry can’t afford to plug all its wells, and states on their own can’t afford to tackle the entire problem, the federal government can. “It’s contributed to some of the increase in global warming we’ve seen.”Ī flood of new abandoned wells leaking methane will only worsen this problem, adding thousands of unplugged methane emitters across the country. “This recent increase in methane is massive,” said Cornell University professor Robert Howarth. Global atmospheric methane levels have risen dramatically since the fracking boom began, increasing roughly 25 million tons from 2008-2014, with the increase matching the chemical signature of shale oil and gas. EPA estimates unplugged oil and gas wells leaked 7 million metric tons of methane in 2018, roughly equal to 1.5 million cars, with actual emissions likely far higher due to incomplete data. In addition to leaking likely carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde into local communities, uncapped wells are massive methane emitters. Government Accountability Office pegs the total cost of plugging every abandoned well across the country at up to $435 billion, meaning oil and gas companies facing declining demand and unstable financial futures may not have enough revenue and savings to pay well retirement obligations.Ībandoned wells are creating a massive methane problem The issue is even worse on federal lands, where drillers are only required to set aside $10,000 for a single well and a maximum of $150,000 for all wells drilled nationwide. The current amount oil and gas companies must set aside is based on traditional oil wells, with an average cost of $20,000-$40,000, but actual expected costs to retire fracked wells is closer to $300,000, according to Carbon Tracker. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images) Getty Imagesīecause state programs have indirectly subsidized oil and gas drilling for years by allowing companies to set aside funds for the future estimated cost of capping wells, sufficient funding usually doesn’t exist to retire and plug wells left behind by bankruptcy. Officials report the old wells have leaked oil, natural gas and brine into the soil. Since the program's inception more than $90 million has been spent to restore more than 14,500 abandoned well sites. In 1993, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board began to restore abandoned oil well sites. The state is now the earthquake capital of the world and the quakes are believed to be caused by oil field waste water injections into the earth. Thousands of abandoned oil wells were never properly mapped and many of the original drilling companies no longer exist. ![]() DEPEW, OK - FEBRUARY 18: John Carter looks at old oil field equipment covered by vegetation near his.
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