Louisiana will join 25 other states in asking the federal government for more than $401 million to plug thousands of orphaned oil and gas wells.
This comes as $4.7 billion has been reserved for plugging abandoned wells and restoring associated property through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Federal Orphaned Wells program, according to a report from the Bureau of Land Management.
"These legacy pollution cleanup efforts will advance the department’s goals of environmental justice by helping historically marginalized communities address the devastating and long-lasting effects of legacy pollution," a Department of the Interior memorandum stated.
According to a report by NOLA, 4,605 orphaned wells have been identified by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources for remediation.
There are also more than 130,000 abandoned or orphaned wells in the United States, which is an increase from 2019 of 56,600, according to The Hill.
An average of $87,000 would be requested for each well the state has listed as orphaned, NOLA reported, though the money set aside in the infrastructure bill would only be enough to cover about $36,000 per well if all 130,000 abandoned wells identified by the Interior were funded.
In 2021, the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission conducted a survey showing Louisiana had plugged 3,450 orphaned wells since 1993, including 135 in 2020 at a cost of about $5.9 million, KPVI reported.
