Biden is sending almost $1 billion to states to plug left oil and gas wells
Key takeaways:
- On Monday, the Biden administration declared it would send $1.15 billion to states to plug thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells that cast methane, a rugged climate-changing greenhouse gas.
- The funds will go to the 26 states that raised notices of a plan to the Interior the previous year.
- Interior Secretary Deb Haaland stated in a statement that the grant allows the government to “confront the heritage pollution and long-standing environmental injustices.”
Biden grants $1B to stranded oil and gas wells:
On Monday, the Biden administration declared it would send $1.15 billion to states to plug thousands of stranded oil and gas wells that cast methane, a rugged climate-changing greenhouse gas.
Methane is a central part of natural gas and accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and gas enterprise represents about 30% of the nation’s methane emissions.
Methane is 84 times more mighty than carbon. It doesn’t stay as long in the environment before it cracks down, making it a potent target for lowering global warming faster while simultaneously functioning to ease other greenhouse gases.
The budget to plug oil and gas wells reaches from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which gave $4.7 billion to create a current federal program to manage the thousands of wells left across the nation.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland stated in a statement that the grant allows the government to “engage the legacy pollution and long-standing environmental injustices that for too long have troubled underrepresented neighborhoods.”
“We must work with haste to address the almost one hundred thousand documented orphaned wells across the nation and leave no community behind,” Haaland stated. “This is good for our climate, for the health of our neighborhoods, and American workers.”