Hi —
Last week, when the legislature should have been completely focused on passing a new state budget, they detoured to pass House Bill 2644 which would put the responsibility of plugging abandoned oil and gas wells on YOU, the taxpayer, rather than the corporate polluters who abandoned these wells in the first place.
HB 2644 takes power away from the Department of Environmental Protection to hold polluters accountable for remediating these abandoned oil and gas well sites. If drillers don't plug and seal these wells, then the state has to use YOUR tax dollars to do so.
This is completely unfair. If a big corporation comes to our state and pollutes our air and water, they MUST be responsible for cleaning up their own mess. HB 2644 is now on Governor Wolf’s desk and we urge him to veto it and hold conventional oil and gas drillers accountable for their actions.
Will you join us today and tell Governor Wolf to veto HB 2644 and make big corporate polluters pay to clean up their own mess?
This bill would set the current amount drillers are required to pay to plug an abandoned well at below the actual market rate for that work. Where will the extra money needed to actually fill orphan wells come from then? The answer is the Pennsylvania taxpayer. Pennsylvanians could be liable for as much as $5.1 billion to clean up these wells if HB 2644 becomes law.
In addition to taking away the DEP’s ability to protect the health of the environment and Pennsylvania’s communities, this bill would also give well-plugging companies immunity from any additional environmental damage they cause AND would set ineffective limits to how deep a well must be plugged, undoubtedly causing more harm to local communities’ public health.
If you agree that polluters need to be responsible for cleaning up their own messes, join us and tell Governor Wolf to protect taxpayers and veto House Bill 2644.
In particular, environmental justice and frontline communities have been plagued by drilling and the negative impacts of orphaned and abandoned wells. HB 2644 unnecessarily removes the financial burden for remediating that damage from the corporate polluters and puts it on the backs of regular Pennsylvanians like you and I. By taking away the power of the DEP to fix this problem and letting polluters off the hook, environmental justice and frontline communities across the state will keep waiting for solutions that just don’t come.
We are on the brink of seeing improvements in Pennsylvania’s orphaned well problem and we cannot let pro-polluter legislation get in the way.
Urge Governor Wolf to veto House Bill 2644 and protect our air and water from unplugged orphan wells.
