Urge Governor Wolf to Veto Bill Endangering Plugging of Orphan Gas and Oil Wells

From the Clean Air Council (http://www.cleanair.org/):

Pennsylvania is estimated to have anywhere from 200,000 to 560,000 orphan and abandoned oil and gas wells. Despite their age, these wells leak significant amounts of methane every year. Methane is up to 87 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeline. DEP has thus far documented only around 8,700 of these wells given the agency’s limited resources.

The Pennsylvania state legislature has passed H.B. 2644 largely along party lines and the Clean Air Action Fund urges you to tell Governor Wolf to veto this irresponsible legislation at https://cleanaircouncil.salsalabs.org/c4vetohb2644/index.html.  This legislation threatens Pennsylvania’s access to federal funds allocated in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for orphan well plugging. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) estimates that it costs $33,000 to plug an orphan well, but this bill limits federal funding for plugging individual wells at $10,000 and $20,000 depending on the depth of the well. The federal government could withhold this funding because this bill does not accurately account for the cost of orphan well plugging.

This bill also states that the entity receiving the well plugging funds is immune from civil penalties related to its work and not responsible for any errors that may occur while plugging the well. Given the use of federal and state taxpayer dollars, well plugging companies must be held accountable for their work.

This bill also severely hinders the DEP’s ability to collect bonds from active gas drilling companies so that wells can be adequately plugged once they are retired from use. The bill restricts well bonds to $4,000, even though DEP estimates it costs $33,000 to plug an individual well. The bonding amount is further restricted for companies drilling large groups of wells. For companies drilling over 250 unconventional (read: fracking) wells, bonding costs cannot exceed $250,000, leaving DEP with less than $1,000 per well. For conventional wells not using hydraulic fracturing, the restrictions are even stronger. Regardless of the amount of conventional wells a company operates, it can file a single $25,000 bond to cover their wells across the state, while a single well could cost more than this amount to plug.

Please tell Governor Wolf to veto H.B. 2644 so that Pennsylvania’s significant amount of orphan gas wells can be adequately closed to reduce climate-changing air pollution.