We have this problem in WV, too, but also with coal mines.
Mining companies have to put up reclamation bonds to get permits, but those bonds aren’t even close to the cost of cleanup. So companies just abandon ship, forfeit the bonds (which are far less than the cost of cleanup/remediation), and the taxpayers are left to foot the cleanup bill. In the meantime, they leach heavy metals and other toxic crap into nearby communities.
Too bad, so sad. Time to fine them to the moon and back.
Sounds like the companies should have thought of that when deciding to drill.
Fine them for every cent spent
I’m personally working on this problem. It sucks, and the politics are frustrating as hell, but the people working at the State of CO to reign in oil and gas are making every penny of funding work as hard as it can.
Those poor independent little oil wells. Totally disconnected from kajillion-dollar global industries.
That’s the idea: extract the oil, pay out everything as dividends or share buybacks, and then sell the well to a doomed-to-fail company which can declare bankruptcy and leave the public responsible for cleaning up the mess. The oil industry has a long history of taking advantage of inadequate bond requirements for oil wells to do exactly that.
Fuck the bond requirements, just find a judge who’ll call bullshit. Shell companies are not a new scam.
Sorry, but the judge is hoping for a gratuity