Biden Admin. Unveils $4.7Bln Program To Clean Up Abandoned Oil, Gas Wells - Energy Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2022) The Biden administration has announced in a press release a $4.7 billion program to be implemented via a Federal inter-agency effort to direct money, resources and expertise to clean up and cap orphaned oil and gas wells.

"The Department of the Interior announced an interagency initiative today to implement a new federal program for addressing orphaned wells, a key initiative of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law," the release said on Tuesday. "The law includes $4.7 billion for orphaned well site plugging, remediation and restoration activities."

The US Departments of the Interior, Energy, Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission have signed a memorandum of understanding which creates an outline to build out the orphaned well program, the release said.

The signatories have committed to use and leverage their combined resources, expertise, capabilities and expertise to buttress the initiative, the release also said.

Environmental activists and experts and federal officials have expressed concern about the damage these orphaned oil and gas wells - abandoned by mining, oil and other extractive industries has done - causing a range of health and safety problems including contamination of water sources, hazardous waste, pollution and other issues, the release noted.

Federal officials have said that while advancing the Biden administration's environmental justice efforts, this initiative will help marginalized communities most affected by what they call "legacy pollution," the release said.

The program is also expected revitalize economies, improve communities' health and create jobs in the locales where people have been most directly affected by these uncapped oil and gas wells, the release added.

According to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, there are about 60,000 documented orphaned wells, meaning that the federal government knows and has noted their locations. Commission staff also estimate that there may be as many as 1 million undocumented orphan oil and gas wells that were never catalogued and tracked by the US government.