This was written by Patrice Tomcik, Moms Clean Air Force National Field Manager:
Pollution from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells impacts millions of people in the US. These wells are no longer in use and sit idle in our communities, leaking oil, gas, and toxic chemicals into our air and water. They can also emit methane, a powerful contributor to climate change.
There are more than 56,000 documented orphaned oil and gas wells across the country. A true accounting of these wells could be more than a million.
Pollution from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells is a critical issue facing millions of families. We need federal action to plug these wells now.
Orphaned wells result when oil and gas companies don’t clean up after themselves. Instead of plugging a well that is no longer active and repairing the surrounding land, the companies walk away, leaving leaky, unplugged wells to pollute our air, water, and land.
Nearby communities are suffering the consequences. For far too long, children who live, learn, or play near orphan wells have been disproportionately impacted by methane and other harmful pollution that puts their health and safety at risk.
Orphaned wells can also be a major source of methane emissions. We know that methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet 86 times more than carbon pollution over 20 years. Cutting methane emissions, in part by plugging orphaned wells, is the strongest lever humanity has to slow climate change and keep warming below catastrophic levels.
Current orphan well plugging programs have pennies on the dollar to do this work. Congress must pass legislation to provide needed funding to start addressing this critical issue at scale.
Pollution from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells impacts millions of people in the US. These wells are no longer in use and sit idle in our communities, leaking oil, gas, and toxic chemicals into our air and water. They can also emit methane, a powerful contributor to climate change.
There are more than 56,000 documented orphaned oil and gas wells across the country. A true accounting of these wells could be more than a million.
Current orphan well plugging programs have pennies on the dollar to do this work. Tell Congress to pass legislation to provide needed funding to start addressing this critical issue at scale.
TELL CONGRESS: PROTECT COMMUNITIES FROM HARMFUL POLLUTION
FROM ORPHANED OIL AND GAS WELLS