Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an this week requiring that abandoned oil and gas equipment be plugged up or removed.
The move comes about a year after an old natural gas pipeline leaked methane into a home in Firestone, Colorado. The home , killing two people and injuring another.
According to the order, the has until July 2023 to either plug high-priority sites or remove the equipment involved. The Commission will also publish a list of known sites by Aug. 1, to be updated each year.
So-called 鈥渙rphaned鈥� wells and sites have been abandoned by oil and gas companies and relinquished to the state, sometimes due to the companies going bankrupt.
So far, the state has identified 262 orphaned wells and 373 orphaned sites that require action. On top of that, the points out, 鈥渉undreds of undiscovered orphaned wells are located in historic oil and gas fields around the state, such as the and fields鈥� 鈥� not to mention sites that will become orphaned in the future.
鈥淭he number of oil and gas operators that have filed for bankruptcy or do not have the funds to operate in compliance with the law continues to increase,鈥� the order reads.
As Inside Energy reported, Colorado has more than 35,000 abandoned wells and has an estimated 50,000. Many of those are .
To help fund the efforts, oil and gas operators that voluntarily plug or fix problem sites will be eligible for tax credits.
In a statement, the Colorado Petroleum Council it 鈥渨elcome(s)鈥� the Governor鈥檚 directive and 鈥渓ook(s) forward鈥� to implementing the regulatory changes. The Colorado Oil & Gas Association also said it was 鈥渁 positive step.鈥�
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
