Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Colorado seeks oil and gas cleanup guarantee
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Oil well in Rangely, Colorado. Jeffrey Beall, Wikimedia Commons ([link removed])

A Colorado rule requires oil and gas companies to submit financial plans for how they'll pay for plugging and cleaning up oil and gas wells at the end of their productivity. This rule is intended to provide assurance that wells won't be orphaned and left as public health hazards, but an analysis ([link removed]) shows that some plans won't cover the full cost.

This process stems from a 2019 Colorado law that mandates the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission prioritize public health. This includes ensuring that oil and gas companies clean up wells before abandoning them. The state is now increasing the amount of money companies need to put forward ([link removed]) , often in the form of bonds, to pay for plugging and reclaiming their wells.

Colorado currently has around 50,000 unplugged oil and gas wells. Plugging and fully reclaiming a Colorado well costs an average of $92,710 ([link removed]) , suggesting companies are facing about $4.6 billion in future cleanup costs. By having companies submit plans to cover well plugging costs in the future, the commission seeks to ensure that the state and taxpayers don't bear the costs of orphaned wells. “If a company doesn’t have a viable plan to plug all its wells, it shouldn’t be doing business in Colorado,” said former state representative Mike Foote ([link removed]) .

The analysis from Capital and Main ([link removed]) found several companies' financial assurance plans would result in the company paying less than the full cost of plugging and reclaiming wells. The commission will review the financial assurance proposals in the coming months and will approve or deny the proposals, and it remains to be seen how strictly the commission will enforce the new rules and if it will allow for loopholes or exceptions.
Quick hits


** Colorado works on an oil and gas well cleanup guarantee, but doubts loom
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Capital & Main ([link removed]) | High Country News ([link removed])


** Forest Service halts a plan to allow more cattle grazing on Tonto public lands
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Arizona Republic ([link removed])


** New House rules make it easier to give away federal public lands to states
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Missouri Independent ([link removed]) | Epoch Times ([link removed])


** BLM studies plan to open oil tanker route through Nine Mile, Utah’s famed rock art corridor
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])


** Arizona city cuts off a neighborhood’s water supply amid drought
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed])


** Northern Nevada lithium mine draws Native resistance from across the West
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Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])


** Connecting national parks could help generations of wildlife thrive
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Popular Science ([link removed])


** Proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument crucial to Biden's 30x30 goal
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Public News Service ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” Our national parks are increasingly becoming habitat islands in a sea of human-ordered habitat. By linking these parks, not only do you address the adverse effects of habitat fragmentation and loss on species and habitat remnants, but you also allow species to more readily shift their geographic ranges in response to climate change.”
—William Newmark ([link removed]) , conservation biologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah
Picture this

[link removed]


** @USFWS ([link removed])
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I just a baby!

Even full-grown, northern saw-whet owls are just little guys measuring 7-8 inches tall with a wingspan of up to 19 inches. These owls mostly eat mice, shrews and voles, hunting at night from a perch.

📸 courtesy of Andy Witchger/CC BY 2.0 [link removed] ([link removed])

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