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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-rising-cost-of-the-oil-industrys-slow-death>
"In the 165 years since the first American oil well struck black gold, the
industry has punched millions of holes in the earth, seeking profits gushing
from the ground. Now, those wells are running dry, and a generational bill is
coming due.
Until wells are properly plugged, many leak oil and brine onto farmland and
into waterways and emit toxic and explosive gasses, rendering redevelopment
impossible. A noxious lake inundates West Texas ranchland, oil bubbles into a
downtown Los Angeles apartment building and gas seeps into the yards of
suburban Ohio homes.
But the impact is felt everywhere, as many belch methane, the second-largest
contributor to climate change, into the atmosphere.
There are more than 2 million unplugged oil and gas wells that will need to be
cleaned up, and the current production boom and windfall profits for industry
giants have obscured the bill’s imminent arrival. More than 90% of the
country’s unplugged wells either produce little oil and gas or are already
dormant.
By law, companies are responsible for plugging and cleaning up wells. Oil
drillers set aside funds called bonds, similar to the security deposit on a
rental property, that are refunded once they decommission their wells or, if
they walk away without doing that work, are taken by the government to cover
the cost.
But an analysis by
ProPublica and
Capital & Main has found that the money
set aside for this cleanup work in the 15 states accounting for nearly all the
nation’s oil and gas production covers less than 2% of the projected cost. That
shortfall puts taxpayers at risk of picking up the rest of the massive tab to
avoid the environmental, economic and public health consequences of aging oil
fields.
The estimated cost to plug and remediate those wells if cleanup is left to the
government is $151.3 billion, according to the states’ own data. But the actual
price tag will almost certainly be higher — perhaps tens of billions of dollars
more — because some states don’t fully account for the cost of cleaning up
pollution. In addition, regulators have yet to locate many wells whose owners
have already walked away without plugging them, known as orphan wells, which
states predict will number at least in the hundreds of thousands.
“The data presents an urgent call to action for state regulators and the
Department of the Interior to swiftly and effectively update bond amounts,”
said Shannon Anderson, who tracks the oil industry’s cleanup as organizing
director of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a nonprofit that advocates
for Wyoming communities. Anderson and nine other experts, including petroleum
engineers and financial analysts, reviewed
ProPublica and
Capital & Main’s
findings, which were built using records from 30 state and federal agencies."
Via Kevin O'Brien.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
