142,000 orphaned oil wells leak methane while plugging funds cover a fraction of costs

As of late 2023, 142,000 documented orphaned oil and gas wells across 29 U.S. states sit unplugged, leaking methane and contaminating groundwater with no solvent operator to remediate them. Landowners, rural communities, and taxpayers bear the cost. The median plugging cost is $76,000 per well including surface reclamation, but some wells exceed $1 million. Carbon Tracker estimates the total remediation liability at $280 billion for 2.6 million documented onshore wells. Federal infrastructure funding allocated $4.7 billion -- roughly 1.7% of the estimated total need. So what does this mean on the ground? A rancher in Wyoming or Pennsylvania discovers their water well is contaminated by a neighboring orphaned well, but no operator exists to sue, the state plugging queue is years long, and their property value craters in the meantime. This problem persists because bonding requirements have historically been laughably low (previously $25,000 statewide for all of an operator's wells), operators can shed liabilities through shell companies and bankruptcy, and states lack the enforcement capacity to track and compel cleanup before companies dissolve.