by Ben Hunkler | Jun 12, 2025 | Newsroom, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. —— Policy and regulatory failures have allowed Pennsylvania oil and gas well owners to delay and avoid plugging responsibilities as the number of leaky, aging wells at risk of abandonment continues to grow. That’s according to testimony to be delivered...
by Ted Boettner and Aimee Mantell | Jun 12, 2025 | Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells, Reports
Download report Pennsylvania is ground zero for the abandoned oil and gas well crisis in the United States. The state’s long history of drilling, dating back to the late 1850s, has culminated in hundreds of thousands of unplugged wells that are spread across...
by Zane Gustafson | May 30, 2025 | Blog Posts, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells
The bill for the 150-year legacy of oil drilling in Appalachia is coming due. Yet, drilling still continues, adding to the region’s backlog of unplugged and polluting oil and gas wells. This is a huge problem for the region because unplugged wells have been linked to...
by Dwayne Purvis and Ted Boettner | May 6, 2025 | Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells, Reports
Part I: The Problem Part II: The Solution Plateauing Appalachian gas production underscores the need for transformational policy reform to ensure the oil and gas industry, rather than the public, pays for the growing cost of decommissioning the region’s hundreds of...
by Ted Boettner | Feb 13, 2025 | Blog Posts, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells
Orphaned well funding—and jobs—are in...
by Ted Boettner | Jan 30, 2025 | Hydrogen & Carbon Capture, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells, Reports
Download research brief West Virginia’s prospective underground carbon storage formations are overlaid by tens of thousands of abandoned and improperly plugged wells—and potentially hundreds of thousands of additional undocumented wells—through which injected...
by Ted Boettner | Nov 8, 2024 | Blog Posts, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells
On October 23, 2024, Senior Researcher Ted Boettner presented at the 2nd Annual Orphan & Idle Wells Texas Conference on the need for a federal solution to clean up America’s orphaned and abandoned wells. His presentation is summarized below. An upcoming report...
by Ted Boettner | Mar 25, 2024 | Blog Posts, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells
Pennsylvania, like several other oil and gas producing states, has a broken system when it comes to preventing orphaned and abandoned wells. Its inadequate bonding and regulatory systems incentivize the indefinite delay of plugging responsibilities and the orphaning...
by Gregory Cumpton and Ted Boettner | Feb 28, 2024 | Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells, Repairing the Damage, Reports
Download report Download toolkit Download state fact sheets Current efforts to target methane emissions in the oil and gas industry for reduction stem from two underlying facts: excess atmospheric methane plays several particularly egregious roles in the...
by Ted Boettner | Aug 21, 2023 | Blog Posts, Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells
Last month, the Department of Interior (DOI) released its application guidance for Phase 1 state formula grants for orphaned well clean up under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The formula grants are one of three grant programs included in the...
