Federal Orphan Well Funding, Explained

At the end of January, the Biden administration and the US Department of Interior (DOI) announced the first round of $1.15 billion in funding from a new federal orphaned well program to plug, remediate, and reclaim oil and gas wells. As part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Orphaned Well […]
Stayin’ Alive: The Last Days of Stripper Wells in the Ohio River Valley

Low-producing oil and gas wells could soon become costly public liabilities.
REGROW Act Could Provide $1.7 Billion to Clean Up Hazardous Wells in Appalachia

In early April, we released a report outlining the benefits of plugging and cleaning up orphan and abandoned oil and gas wells in Appalachia. Since that time, there have been several bills introduced in Congress to address the issue. These include the Orphan Well Cleanup and Jobs Act (HR 2415) in the House and the […]
Repairing the Damage from Hazardous Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells

An analysis of the potential benefits of a large-scale federal program to plug abandoned oil and gas wells in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
A federal solution is needed to address hazardous abandoned wells

On Thursday the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources in the US House will be holding a hearing on the federal Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Program to discuss reauthorization of the program and how it can help local economies and the environment. The AML program was created in 1977 under the Surface Mining Control and […]