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A coalition of U.S. senators, led by Colorado and New Mexico's delegations, are pushing the Bureau of Land Management to finish updating the bonding requirements for oil and gas companies that drill on American public lands.
“Our public lands are essential to fishing and hunting, wildlife and land conservation, livestock grazing, and our states’ outdoor recreation economies. However, orphaned wells left behind by oil and gas companies litter our landscapes,” wrote the senators in a letter released by Senator Michael Bennet's office. “These wells leak powerful, climate-harming methane emissions, release other dangerous pollution affecting our air, water, and wildlife, and prevent lands from being used for other purposes.”
The current minimum bonds that oil and gas companies must post in order to extract publicly-owned oil and gas haven't been updated in 50 years, and the Government Accountability Office has warned that taxpayers face millions of dollars in liability when drillers abandon wells without cleaning up.
The rates were on track to be overhauled in the Inflation Reduction Act, but the provisions were removed on procedural grounds by the Senate parliamentarian. The Interior Department then proposed to update its bonding rates as part of its oil and gas leasing rule. Ninety-nine percent of public comments encouraged the agency to finalize or even strengthen the final rule.
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