Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: October 3, 2024
Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: October 3, 2024
Plugging 550 old gas & oil wells in Pennsylvania!
New federal funding will help Pennsylvania plug 550 orphaned & abandoned fossil fuel wells.
Tell Congress to sustain BIL funding for well plugging!
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Reasons For Hope
On September 3, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the state of Pennsylvania is receiving $76.4 million in federal funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to plug 550 “orphaned and abandoned” oil and gas wells. The BIL overall is set to disburse $4.7 billion to plug orphaned and abandoned wells across the country.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is empowering communities across the country to confront long-standing environmental injustices by making a historic investment to plug orphaned oil and gas wells.
These investments are good for our climate, for the health of our communities, and for American workers. With this additional funding, Pennsylvania will put more people to work to clean up these toxic sites, reduce methane emissions and safeguard our environment.”
-U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells are a widespread problem in historically fossil fuel-abundant Pennsylvania, occurring when the corporate owners of no-longer-profitable wells go out of business or disappear, leaving the open wells just outgassing climate-warming methane emissions and sometimes even leaking oil and gas into water and soil.
In response, the state of Pennsylvania has developed a robust Well Plugging Program to clean out such wells and seal them with cement, but before the BIL it was seriously underfunded, spending around $1 million per year. Pennsylvania now has unprecedented financial support to plug its abandoned wells thanks to the new federal funding!
“By plugging orphaned and abandoned wells, we’re tackling a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and creating thousands of good-paying jobs in the process. This is a smart, commonsense way to combat climate change, promote public health, and create jobs.”
-Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
This is a tangible economic and public health benefit arising from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and as we continue the transition away from fossil fuels, it’s a program that needs strong support in future funding appropriation.