Oil and natural gas wells can continue to emit methane and other pollutants to the air, soil, and groundwater when they are no longer actively producing. Once an operator is finished with a well, properly plugging it can reduce or stop much of this pollution. Many states require owners and operators to properly plug their closed wells, yet over three million wells throughout the United States remain unplugged. Well plugging is expensive and existing incentives and penalties are inadequate to gain compliance.
The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act of 1984 (the Oil and Gas Act) requires well owners and operators to plug their wells prior to closure and within one year of ending production. The Oil and Gas Act authorizes the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) to implement and enforce plugging requirements. Under the Biden administration, the federal government also took steps to help states address their unplugged abandoned wells and deter future incomplete abandonment. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) appropriates funds for states to find and plug unplugged wells within their
Our paper evaluates PA DEP’s existing requirements for well plugging, identifies opportunities to update the state’s regulations, compares Pennsylvania’s incentives and penalties with those of other oil and gas producing states, and discusses how those fit within EPA’s rules for oil and gas wells. We briefly explain PA DEP’s regulatory tools to locate orphan wells and highlight that the state’s potential need for additional funding. Finally, we look at the state and federal funds available for PA DEP to plug unplugged wells and identify additional questions and considerations for stakeholders and policymakers regarding methane emissions from unplugged wells.