How much money should oil and gas producers be required to set aside for cleaning up retired well sites? That question will be front and center at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission this winter as the agency crafts rules governing financial assurances from the oil and gas industry.
If oil and gas producers haven鈥檛 put aside enough money to properly plug and abandon their operations, those wells could become orphaned. They often continue polluting the air and water, and Colorado taxpayers end up footing the bill to clean it all up.
To help us understand the consequences of orphan wells, Colorado Edition spoke to , deputy director of the .
