Unplugged oil and gas wells pose a significant threat to our climate, as well as having negative impacts on water, air, and public health and safety. But the inventory of these wells, including orphaned wells, has been growing, not shrinking, year over year. The longer these wells sit, the more damage they cause.
Reclaiming Oil and Gas Wells and Addressing Climate Impacts: State Policy Recommendations seeks to summarize the challenges state regulatory programs face and make recommendations for stronger policies that will help ensure that oil and gas sites are plugged and reclaimed in a complete and timely way. The most critical policy solution to ensure wells are cleaned up is to require financial assurance, or bonds, at a level that covers the full cost to plug and reclaim them. This strategy can ensure that industry—not states and taxpayers—will be responsible for these costs.
Download a PDF of the white paper here.