Environmental Defense Fund reposted this
A bracing look inside the sausage-making factory of state-level financial assurance reform efforts from ProPublica, with a focus on New Mexico. I continue to believe that we will only solve the orphan well problem by working collaboratively across stakeholder groups -- I like to think that all involved (including industry) agree that oil and gas wells ought to be properly plugged and remediated at the end of their useful lives by their operators, as is required by law in all states. It's mostly a function of the details, and especially where to assign plugging burdens when operators have not saved sufficient resources to cover closure of their wells. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, which is referenced in the article, is the premier venue where state oil and gas regulators can (and do) share leading practices for orphan well management and prevention -- the issue has been a top topic of conversation at IOGCC for years. Regulators by and large know what needs to be done to solve this problem, but the political will ultimately needs to come from Governors and state legislatures via voters: https://lnkd.in/eEtWasGz
