There are hundreds of thousands of undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells across the U.S. that remain unplugged — and, in a lot of cases, unsafe. 

Orphan wells are those wells that have been left behind and abandoned, with no one responsible for the dangerous methane and other pollution they are releasing into our air, and toxins leaching into our water. 

But there’s a solution — one that protects our health, curbs the climate crisis, and boosts our economy.

Will you help us solve this problem, and demand Congress put people back to work plugging these dangerous wells?

More than 100,000 American oil and gas workers lost their jobs since the pandemic started. Nearly half of those are oil field workers — who have the expertise to get this job done.

And we need them. Methane — the main component of natural gas — is a powerful greenhouse gas, over 84-times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it’s released. It’s responsible for a quarter of the warming we’re experiencing today. 

But when EDF and leading universities studied abandoned wells, they found that 40% of unplugged wells were leaking methane. By contrast, only 1 out of more than 100 plugged wells was found to be leaking methane — and at a tiny fraction of the rate.

We know how to stop this pollution — and it’s one of the fastest, most effective ways to slow the rate of warming while putting Americans back to work in the wake of this pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

Make sure Congress knows where you stand. Take action today, and demand they put a stop to this pollution problem.

Thank you for standing with us,

Heather Shelby
Action Network Manager