I recently turned 70 years old! As my big day approached, I started thinking about what a milestone it was. Of course, I looked forward to birthday cake and dancing! But as a longtime climate activist, I realized I wanted to do something symbolic of my life’s work, and something concrete enough to have actual results.
Around the same time, I heard about a wonderful non-profit organization based in Montana called The Well Done Foundation. Well Done caps abandoned wells that leak methane. Methane is a nasty greenhouse gas that’s 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when it comes to causing climate change.
Methane is leaking out of more than 2 million abandoned gas wells in almost every state in the US. That sounds bad. And it is. But what made me feel good was this: Capping a well (which is done by filling it with cement and literally putting a cap on top of it) stops the methane leaking out of it immediately. It’s the carbon equivalent of taking as many as a thousand vehicles off the road (on average) for each well capped.
I suddenly had one of those Eureka! moments. I could make my 70th birthday all about me (boo). Or I could make it about all of us and our planet and doing something that can actually help stop climate change (yay).
I called Well Done’s founder Curtis Shuck and asked him what it would take to cap a well for my birthday. He loved the idea and said “All” it would take is…$30,000 (boo, again). That’s what it costs to pay for the equipment needed to survey a well site, fill it with cement, put an actual cap on it, and start to restore the land around it.
“Can you raise the money?” he asked. And I said “ABSOLUTELY…as long as my friends and family skip the presents and birthday cake and contribute to The Well Done Foundation instead.”
“You’d ask them to do that?” Curtis wondered. “I would,” I replied. And I did, with gratifying results. In just a few weeks, more than 45 people contributed over $16,000 to cap a leaking methane well that Curtis identified in Northern Pennsylvania.
Why have people been so eager to pitch in? One friend said, “This is a great actionable solution…So glad to learn about it and to help spread the word.” Others noted that they thought it was the perfect way to compensate for their own carbon footprint, since on average each of us adds 20 tons of carbon to the atmosphere every single year. “I love this concept!” emailed a friend from an airport runway in New York. “I’ll make an offset donation to offset my flying guilt….(sitting on a plane now).” And noted a dear family member, “Here’s to your next decade – and may it be the one when we begin to reverse climate change!”
“The timing of the decision feels especially harsh,” wrote Scientific American, “as the nation is in the throes of the “Danger Season” for hazards like heat waves, drought, wildfires and hurricanes,” all of which are worse due to the climate crisis.
With this one ruling, the Supreme Court showed why capping leaking methane wells to help stop climate change is so important:
- Capping wells is beyond the reach of the Court. The wells being plugged for the most part are on private land and are being plugged with the support of the landowner. No one else would have standing to sue to stop the plug.
- Capping leaking wells has the support of EPA and the Biden Administration. While the Supreme Court decision prevents EPA from taking important steps to reduce carbon emissions, it has no impact whatsoever on EPA’s support for well capping.
- Capping a leaking well can happen anywhere and everywhere a well exists. In state after state, Well Done can cap well after well.
What else the Supreme Court will do to try to block measures to stop climate change is anyone’s guess. But whatever they do won’t stop the Well Done Foundation!
And by the way, I still got some cake! On my birthday, my daughter had 12 deliciously decadent cupcakes delivered to my door. So I guess you could say, I got my cake and got to eat it, too!