Plugging Old Wells

Oil Industry Mum on Biden Jobs Pitch

Josh Siegel and Abby Smith, Wash. Examiner (April 01): The oil and gas industry does not sound gung-ho about a provision of Biden’s green infrastructure plan to invest $16 billion to employ “hundreds of thousands” of fossil fuel workers to plug leaking wells. API did not directly comment on the specific proposal (which is admittedly sparse on details at this point), when asked for comment by Josh. Instead, API’s Frank Macchiarola said, “our industry is fully committed to complying with existing state and federal requirements for abandoned wells and reclaiming wells sites, and we will continue to support efforts to plug these wells and further reduce methane emissions.” The oil and gas industry has previously emphasized that of the 56,000 “verified” orphaned wells in the United States, the vast majority (more than 50,000) are located on state and private lands. It is unclear if a federal program to plug wells could deal with state and private lands.