JOHNSTOWN, Pa. —— Policy and regulatory failures have allowed Pennsylvania oil and gas well owners to delay and avoid plugging responsibilities as the number of leaky, aging wells at risk of abandonment continues to grow. That’s according to testimony to be delivered today before the Pennsylvania House Environment and Natural Resource Protection Committee. Faulty well inventory management, negligible bonding requirements, and toothless regulatory enforcement have allowed tens of thousands of wells to fall through the cracks, threatening the public with soil and groundwater contamination, climate-warming emissions, and a multibillion-dollar cleanup bill absent transformational policy action.
Livestream the House Environmental & Natural Resource Protection hearing today, Thursday, June 12, at 10 AM ET here.
“Pennsylvania is ground zero for the nation’s orphaned well crisis,” said Ted Boettner, Senior Researcher at Ohio River Valley Institute. “The Commonwealth’s long, successful history of oil and gas production has left hundreds of thousands of unplugged wells and tens of billions of dollars in private liability, creating substantial public risk.”
Taking Inventory: Finding Solutions to Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Well Abandonment Problems, a new report released today by the Ohio River Valley Institute, describes how issues with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s well inventory management and compliance process have permitted owners to evade mandatory reporting requirements and stall costly plugging obligations for years, even after receiving multiple violations.
“As it stands today, plugging a well is de facto voluntary,” explained Aimee Mantell, report co-author and a research fellow with the Ohio River Valley Institute. “Low bonding amounts and a regulatory authority inhibited by a ‘culture of non-compliance’ have had little effect on inducing well plugging in the Commonwealth.”
“The good news is that improving well abandonment protocol and implementing long-overdue reforms can create thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industry while also improving health, the environment and property values in our communities,” Boettner said.
The report recommends a suite of policy and enforcement solutions to stem the tide of well abandonment and improve compliance in Pennsylvania, including:
- Adopting an enforceable minimum production threshold;
- Enacting a severance tax to fund well decommissioning;
- Requiring site-specific trust accounts for new wells;
- Mandating timely plugging of inactive, non-producing wells;
- Updating the state’s well management system;
- Exercising administrative orders to enforce compliance;
- Reorienting and streamlining the Notice of Violation process
View and download “Taking Inventory: Finding Solutions to Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Well Abandonment Problems” at https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.naughty-cat.com/taking-inventory/.
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