Repairing the Damage from Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells
Hundreds of thousands of orphan oil and gas wells across the Ohio River Valley region threaten communities and the environment with harmful air and water pollution and climate-warming emissions. Federally funded programs to clean up these environmental liabilities could create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs each year, research shows.
Photo: Ted Boettner, 2022
Reports:
All research on Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells:
Diversified Energy’s Questionable Financial Practices Continue in 2022
Despite Diversified Energy’s questionable business model, the company’s total liabilities have exceeded its assets.
Diversified Energy: A Business Model Built to Fail Appalachia
Diversified Energy, the nation’s largest owner of low-producing oil & gas wells, does not have enough funds to plug its growing inventory. The company could leave states with billions in clean up costs.
Maximizing Impact of Federal Orphaned Well Program in States
Earlier this month, we provided an explainer of the $4.7 billion federal orphaned well program that was included in the federal infrastructure legislation (the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021) and what that meant for states in the Ohio River Valley. To...
Federal Orphan Well Funding, Explained
At the end of January, the Biden administration and the US Department of Interior (DOI) announced the first round of $1.15 billion in funding from a new federal orphaned well program to plug, remediate, and reclaim oil and gas wells. As part of the 2021...
Stayin’ Alive: The Last Days of Stripper Wells in the Ohio River Valley
Low-producing oil and gas wells could soon become costly public liabilities.
REGROW Act Could Provide $1.7 Billion to Clean Up Hazardous Wells in Appalachia
In early April, we released a report outlining the benefits of plugging and cleaning up orphan and abandoned oil and gas wells in Appalachia. Since that time, there have been several bills introduced in Congress to address the issue. These include the Orphan Well...
Repairing the Damage from Hazardous Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells
An analysis of the potential benefits of a large-scale federal program to plug abandoned oil and gas wells in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
A federal solution is needed to address hazardous abandoned wells
On Thursday the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources in the US House will be holding a hearing on the federal Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Program to discuss reauthorization of the program and how it can help local economies and the environment. The AML program...