Environmental Health Commons^™

Who Pays To Clean Up What A Dying Industry Leaves Behind?, Audrey Carleton

Capstones

As the birthplace of oil and gas, Pennsylvania is home to the highest number of orphaned abandoned oil and gas wells in the country — an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 dot the Keystone State, all remnants of a dying industry. These wells emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and have, for decades, caused alarm to hundreds of residents, documents obtained in a months-long capstone investigation show. The state is currently plugging 10 to 12 abandoned wells per year, on average, out of hundreds of thousands, in part because it has not collected enough in cleanup funds from producers to fund …