A look at the nitty-gritty of plugging abandoned oil and gas wells

Inside Climate News reports on the Well Done Foundation, a private entity trying to assist in the work of plugging abandoned wells.

Here's how bad the need is:

In a 2023 peer-reviewed study, researchers led by McGill University civil engineer Mary Kang estimated that 13 percent of Americans—about 4.6 million people—live within about a half-mile of an AOOG well. “These wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies, degrade ecosystems, and emit methane and other air pollutants … present[ing] risks to climate stability and to environmental and human health,” the study stated.

The story goes on to note details of the problem, details well known by many people in the Permian Basin:

Some are relatively inert on their own, but other unplugged wells might vent hydrocarbons like methane, volatile organic compounds like the carcinogen benzene or deadly gases like hydrogen sulfide. Some leak oil, or a brine called “produced water” contaminated with heavy metals, chemicals or radioactivity. Some pollute underground aquifers or nearby surface waters. Others create their own noxious lakes. Changing subterranean conditions can make previously stable AOOG wells vent or leak. 

Wastewater from oil and gas production is typically disposed of by pumping it into spent, adjacent oil and gas wells, but overpressurized underground disposal reservoirs can force it back to the surface where it can disrupt production from other oil and gas wells.

On federal, often BLM land, the problem is that bonding requirements haven't been updated in 40 years. On the state level, in the greater near Southwest, Colorado and New Mexico, though not perfect, are better than Texas in various ways. I don't know about Oklahoma, but wouldn't hold my breath.

That said, since wingnuts like to talk "moral hazard" so much, isn't this work by a private company kind of enabling moral hazard? 

That said, kudos to Curtis Shuck for founding Well Done Foundation and the work it's doing in Oklahoma. And, since a photo is sometimes worth more than 1,000 words, click the link.

RRC lets bankrupt oil company stiff city of Midland

Inside Climate News discusses an oil company basically stiffing the city of Midland through bankruptcy and orphan wells causing delays on cleaning up the city's water system, as well as problems, natch, with Railroad Commission oversight. Part of the issue is the RRC artificially capping the environmental costs of things such as bad injection wells to make sure that, in bankruptcy, the capitalists get paid back, even if it leaves the people holding the bag.

Meanwhile, even as Midland is doing its own site remediation, it stonewalled Inside Climate News' request for more information. I can feel sorry for the people, but not any more sorry for those that govern them than I do for bankrupt oil companies.

And, the drought mentioned in the story? Likely to only worsen. The Permian Basin, or at least its western half, surely counts as part of the greater Southwest that is likely to remain generally in drought for the rest of this century. 

Also in the story? Wayne-o (not a) Christian apparently doesn't fully understand state law on groundwater protection. Shock me. 

Finally, per a bigger picture, and riffing on the story, this is why, or part of why, High Plains farmers and ranchers like Suzanne Bellsnyder were and are wrong about Proposition 4. 

Cleaning up after oil and gas

Capital and Main talks about Schuyler Wight leaving his West Texas home once a month, every month, to try to get the Railroad Commission to do something — ANYTHING — about orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells, injection wells and more. So far, it seems Wayno Not A Christian and the rest of the gang are falling further behind.

Part of the problem is the issue of "orphaned and abandoned." The RRC has an official definition of "orphaned." It doesn't even know how many abandoned wells exist. And, even on the officially orphaned wells, Wayno, Ms. Tom Craddick Jr. and Dude No. 3 on the RRC are falling ever more behind on the cleanup. And, none of them want to take Wight up on his offer of visiting the most questionable sites, even though Craddick lives out there.

And, let's not even get on the issue of flaring natural gas.

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Speaking of, at least with one former scofflaw, New Mexico IS doing something about flaring gas. A $24.5 million fine, if followed with similar amounts as needed, might be more than just a drop or two in the bucket.

Abandoned oil wells: A growing hazard in NM AND TX

Both New Mexico AND Texas suck at inspecting abandoned oil wells in the Permian. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has done some modest improvements to that into the Land Different, but not a lot. (Lujan Grisham has gotten the state tax code tweaked and other things beyond Gov. Martinez, but on environmental justice, she's still relatively slow See "Richardson, Bill." Better yet: See Gov. Lujan Grisham accept state oil and gas industry award.)

And, we know in the Texas side of the Permian, and presumably in NM, that they're leaking methane. And, possibly, toxins like toluene and benzene. (Beyond these two stories: In both states, and other petroleum-gas heavy states in general, state regulatory agencies' required deposits on wells are a pittance.)

And, many, many more may be abandoned in coming years, as the truth of short-peak, quick-death fracked wells hits home.

Beyond the health hazards of the methane, and even more, the other substances, is the climate change alteration by the methane, much more potent than carbon dioxide over shorter scales of a century or less. On the economic side, this ultimately becomes money out of state taxpayer pockets that can't be used for other things. And, given that state governments won't do any more than a minimalist job, it becomes a blight on communities. It also becomes a recreational blight on federal land, in places where the BLM may not hold feet to the fire much more than state governments.

Meanwhile, NM Environment Department's stripper well loophole for methane further confirms MLG is not a friend of the environment. As New Mexico has cabinet-style government, not the quasi-plural executive of Texas, MLG could fire NMED Secretary James Kenney or do whatever else she deemed necessary to close this loophole.

#TexasMiracle? Oil and gas, illegals, and smoke and mirrors

Most of us who live in Texas and don't have our heads buried up Rick Perry's tuchis already knew the truth about Tricky Ricky's "Texas Miracle," but a good long-form piece from Washington Monthly spells out the details as a friendly reminder.

That photo is a good starting point, noting all the gas flares from the Eagle Ford. But, it's not just the Eagle Ford. If you've been in Texas a while, you can quickly spot, as I did, even more flaring light coming from the Permian Basin. (And, let's not forget all the climate change being induced in those spots.)

Here's a few other takeaways of note:

Perry's franchise tax isn't helping businesses get the best bang for education bucks:

For example, under the assumption that spending on education benefits only households and not businesses, California businesses pay $2.30 in taxes for every dollar they get in benefits, while Texas businesses pay $5. By this measure, Texas is the ninth-worst state in the country in the cost/benefit ratio it offers businesses on their taxes. 

Not even close.

As for the "Texas exceptionalism" of "I wasn't born here but I moved here as quickly as I could," espoused by too many Democrats in the Pointy Abandoned Object State, like Wendy Davis, as well as Tricky Ricky? Wrong:

For example, according to Census Bureau data, 441,682 native-born Americans moved to Texas from other states between 2010 and 2011. Sounds like a lot. But moving (fleeing?) in the opposite direction were 358,048 other native-born Americans leaving Texas behind. That means that the net domestic migration of native-born Americans to Texas came to just 83,634, which in a nation of 315 million isn’t even background noise. It’s the demographic equivalent of, say, the town of Lawrence, Kansas, or Germantown, Maryland, “voting with its feet” and moving to Texas while the rest of America stays put.

Yep. As I blogged already a few years ago. the real "demographic miracle" in Texas, or Tejas, which neither Tricky Ricky nor all-around nutter Kinky Friedman nor hardcore wingnut Ted Cruz nor Greg "Hey, I Have a Mexican Wife" (But Didn't Know I Had for 25 Years) Abbott want to admit, is that Texas' population growth is due to Mezcans. Not Mexican-Americans, not nearly as much as Mezcans, fleeing the homeland for the onion-picking that Americans won't do, and also the roofing and framing at housing projects of Friend of Ricky's, Bob Perry, because in this case, they're used to deliberately drive down labor costs.

But, the folks that move here, or were "lucky" enough to be born here, are all going to be entrepreneurs, right?

Wrong. Not even the slush of Tricky Ricky's Texas Enterprise Fund can change this:

In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, children who grew up in families in the bottom fifth of the income distribution had only a 12.2 percent chance of rising to the top fifth as adults. Those who grew up in or near San Diego or Los Angeles had even lesser odds—only 10.4 and 9.6 percent, respectively. It’s depressing that for so many Californian children, the chances of realizing the American Dream are so slim. But California looks like the land of opportunity compared to Texas.

In the greater Austin area, children who grew up in families of modest means had only a 6.9 percent chance of joining the top fifth of earners when they became adults; in Dallas, only 7.1 percent; in San Antonio, just 6.4 percent. Yes, Texas offers more chances for upward mobility than places like Detroit and some Deep South cities like Atlanta. Yet the claim that Texas triumphs over the rest of America as the land of opportunity is all hat and no cattle. 

Period and end of story.

You want real embarassing? Look left. Vermonters make more money than Texans. Gee, Rick, why aren't you asking Vermont businesses to move here?

And, note to Wendy Davis. Don't pretend we do so much right in Texas. That "behind Vermont" is nearly 30 years old now, except for the brief late-90s bump. And, the decline started while, yes, while Reagan was president, but while Democrats had control of most of the levers of power in Austin, sometimes all of them.

Until we get more Democrats in Texas being more honest about just how much the state has slipped, and for how long, Democratic economic campaign proposals will likely come off sounding like Band-Aids.

Don't hold your breath.

Oil is bubbling up

It’s been a big year for oil; in fact, the biggest year this decade in terms of discoveries.

And, interestingly, not all of the new discoveries are hard-to-get-at deepwater offshore sites.

California has its biggest mainland strike in 35 years.

But, a word of caution. Occidential Petroleum explicitly compared this find in Kern County to some of the newer deepwater finds, saying there’s really nothing else like it on land, at least in the Lower 48 states.

In other words, this isn’t cheap oil.

New Mexico puts irresponsible Big Oil drillers in their place

Gov. Bill Richardson has just signed into law the country’s toughest legislation on oil and gas drillers.

The law, effective July 1, requires that companies notify landowners 30 days prior to drilling-related operations, describe in detail what will go on and propose an agreement covering compensation for the use of — and any damages to — the land.

This includes landowners who don’t hold the mineral rights beneath their land and was specifically written with them in mind. And, it has some teeth, too.

At least 11 other states have some sort of surface use agreement or compensation requirement, she said.

But New Mexico's law is notable for the extensive information that must be provided the landowner, the scope of damages that can be recovered — for loss of agricultural income, or loss of land value, for example — and for the reclamation requirement, she said.

The new law also allows landowners to collect triple damages in court under some circumstances if operators enter land to drill wells without giving notice or having agreements or posting bonds.

Now, if we can get places like Texas, or Wyoming with its dirty drilling, to adopt similar measures…