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After more than a century of extraction, tens of thousands of abandoned mines and orphaned oil wells dot the Western landscape. The work to clean up those often toxic sites is expensive and time consuming, leading to a years-long backlog. Now, the bipartisan infrastructure bill that may be passed by Congress next month offers hope—and much-needed funding—to accelerate the plugging of orphaned wells and clean up abandoned mines.
Colorado Public Radio's Caitlyn Kim highlights the potential impact on Colorado, where there are more than 750 orphaned oil and gas sites—wells whose owners have gone bankrupt or no longer operate in the state, leaving taxpayers on the hook for cleanup. "I'm angry and frustrated,” said Adams County Commissioner Emma Pinter of the situation. “I feel like the analogy that keeps coming to mind is you go out to lunch with a couple of friends and you know you're going to have to pay the bill eventually. (But) as you look around, two or three of your friends have slipped out the back. And the rest of you are picking up the bill."
In total, the infrastructure bill includes more than $4.5 billion to plug and remediate abandoned oil and gas wells, and some $14 billion to clean up abandoned mines.
While this funding is critical to address the growing problem of orphaned wells, it is only a first step towards broader reform. One needed change is increasing the bonding amounts companies must pay to drill wells, bonds that are supposed to ensure taxpayers can cover the cost of cleanup should the company go bankrupt. "In the past, a well would only require a $5,000 bond,” explained Adams County oil and gas liaison. “So, (a company) would have to submit a $5,000 bond to the state to drill these wells. (But) we know that the cost of plugging an abandoned well is $85,000.”
In Congress, Senator Michael Bennet from Colorado has introduced legislation to increase bonding amounts and reform oil and gas leases to decrease the likelihood that wells become orphaned. Just last week the House Natural Resources Committee included many of those provisions in its portion of the massive budget reconciliation bill that is being debated alongside the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Combined, the two pieces of legislation offer hope to governments and communities around the West that orphaned wells and abandoned mines may soon be cleaned up at a faster pace.
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In the eight months since, Biden has continued to talk big on climate, but his actions have been baffling to many observers. Keystone’s still dead, but the administration has defended the equally contentious Dakota Access Pipeline. Biden’s holding the line on ANWR drilling, and recently launched a review of the leasing program there, but he also has supported 
