DOI issued draft guidance for states to apply for grants of up to $40 million each in Regulatory Improvement Grant funding to clean up polluting and unsafe orphaned oil and gas wells across the country. Orphaned wells pose serious health and safety threats to air and water quality by contaminating surface and groundwater, releasing toxic air pollutants, polluting drinking water sources, and leaking methane. The guidance suggested that states consider environmental justice implications, given these various public health hazards from orphaned wells. The guidance also provided examples of projects mitigating the impacts of orphaned wells on air, groundwater, and other natural resources, as well as public safety and general environmental or economic justice. Award of the money requires recipient states to provide periodic status reports that include discussion of how funds are being used to advance environmental justice.
Federal Environmental Justice Tracker