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The Department of the Interior announced a $33 million investment through the bipartisan infrastructure law to plug and clean 277 orphaned oil and gas wells on public lands. The money will address high-priority polluting wells in California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
“I have seen firsthand how the orphaned oil and gas wells left behind by extractive industries lead to hazardous pollution, water contamination, and safety hazards for our communities,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
This funding is part of $250 million allocated for cleaning up oil and gas sites in national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, and other public lands. In total, there are an estimated 130,000 orphan wells across the country which could require around $8 billion to clean up.
New podcast! Are we loving our lands to death?
Former Center for Western Priorities’ policy and design associate Tyler McIntosh and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance wildlands attorney Judi Brawer join Kate and Aaron to discuss the increasing pressures outdoor recreation is putting on our public lands—just in time for Memorial Day Weekend and summer camping season!
In this episode, they break down CWP’s Camping Crunch report and SUWA’s Outdoor Recreation and Ecological Disturbance report and talk about how we can balance visitation and conservation on our public lands. Listen now!
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We have 245 million acres in our care on behalf of the American public, and our job is to make sure we pass these lands down to future generations in better shape than we found them.”
