After the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law was passed, the administration hailed the bill’s $4.7 billion package to cap orphaned oil and gas wells as a move to tackle “super-polluting methane emissions,” saying it will combat the climate crisis and create jobs. But it is possible that, without tight rules, these public funds could be spent in ways that contradict those goals — and go to the very entities that enabled these environmental messes in the first place.
Though the administration claims it will establish safeguards, currently there are no rules to compel state oil and gas regulators to use the federal funds in a way that prioritizes plugging the inactive and supposedly ownerless wells that are emitting the most methane, or even any methane at all. The law’s current implementation also offers no assurances that the new jobs promised for oil and gas industry workers will materialize, although it is a stated goal of the law. - DeSmog
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Big questions about funds meant for oil/gas well cleanup
There's also the possibility that right-wing "judges" will block any rules that are established.
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Unless something has changed, the States have to put up some money to get Federal dollars
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/docs/2022-01/IIJA%20federal%20program-%20orphaned%20wells%20webinar%20presentation_508%20compliance.pdf
Admittedly, there needs to be oversight, but since the Interior Department is the one doling out the monies based on the State documented orphaned wells, let's not overreact.
Not every State has been granted monies and 26 States (out of 28 States that have these wells) were approved for funding. Minnesota has “no indigenous fossil fuel resources,” according to a 2018 legislative report, no oil and gas bonding requirements and will get no monies.
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden-administration-announces-115-billion-states-create-jobs-cleaning-orphaned-oil
Politics may come into play in the next Congress if Republicans take control of the House. Pete Stauber had expressed concerns over regulations and bond rates.