Take the money and plug. Texas can’t turn away federal aid for orphan wells [Editorial]

Experts estimate plugging Lake Boehmer alone would cost between $50 million-$100 million. That’s not precisely chump change for the Texas Railroad Commission, the company accountable for regulating oil wells. In 2021 alone, the fee spent roughly $49 million to plug 1,279 oil wells.

With nearly 150,000 inactive wells across the state, commissioners have their work lower out for them. These wells are, cumulatively, the 10th largest source of annual methane emissions in the nation and “ticking time bombs” threatening our groundwater provide. Even if we assume the fee is doing every thing in its energy to plug these wells – spoiler alert: it is not – tons of of recent wells are orphaned yearly. Since 2006, the fee has eliminated almost 28,000 orphan wells from its stock, yet oil and gas companies have orphaned an additional 22,592.

But for those who’d assume the Railroad Commission would welcome any and all assist to to get a deal with on this Sisyphean process, you would be improper.  

Congress final 12 months authorised $4.6 billion to plug outdated wells, with Texas set to obtain as much as $344 million, sufficient to plug virtually 7,400 wells. Good news for many states, however not for Texas, the place federal assist could be seen as trampling on our independence. 

Just ask Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick.

During a speech at the annual meeting of the Texas Pipeline Association in Houston final week, Craddick informed greater than 100 attendees that the federal regulatory local weather was “hostile to energy,” and that the fee wouldn’t settle for the federal funding to plug deserted oil wells till it is aware of if there’s a catch.  

“We’re going to wait and see what their rules are before we decide if we have the opportunity to accept those dollars,” Craddick stated. 

It’s potential Craddick was merely studying the room and leaning on a well-known chorus amongst Texas Republicans: that the federal authorities ought to maintain its nostril out of the state’s enterprise and let the free market run wild. That message definitely performs nicely amongst an viewers of power executives. Heck, it would simply immediate them to bathe her with even more money from oil and gas donors.

Yet thumbing her nostril at free money to wash up an issue partly of the fee’s making is past silly. Presumably, Craddick was elected to do one thing greater than fatten her marketing campaign coffers and take care of her political prospects. She’s speculated to be appearing as a steward of our pure sources.

Had the fee not supplied tax exemptions and incentives for operators to drill wells they’re prone to orphan; had it not voted in 2020 to waive a rule requiring firms to plug a nicely if it’s been deserted with no manufacturing for a 12 months; had it not allowed operators to promote deserted wells and escape decommissioning legal responsibility, we would not be counting on our tax {dollars} to maintain this drawback for the non-public sector. 

It’s develop into a weird ceremony of passage for our state’s leaders to reject the federal authorities’s assist to unravel intractable issues, solely to take the money when it’s politically handy. Gov. Greg Abbott has steadfastly refused to increase Medicaid, turning his again on roughly $100 billion in federal money over the past decade that will give medical insurance to as many as 1.2 million Texans. Yet he’ll fortunately repurpose $1 billion in federal COVID-19 aid for a program to arrest migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

What makes Craddick’s assertion much more disingenuous is that she probably is aware of in addition to anybody that there are few strings connected to the federal oil nicely cleanup funds. The fee has already received $25 million in initial grant money out of greater than $82 million in the first tranche of funding. The nicely plugging and remediation requirements are largely left to particular person states. In reality, Wayne Christian, the Railroad Commission chairman, can be the vice chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a multi-state authorities group which reportedly played an outsized role in providing “technical assistance and consulting” in drafting the Congressional infrastructure invoice that features the nicely plugging funds. 

In an ideal world, Texas wouldn’t be overly reliant on federal money to wash up our mess. The fee ought to require operators to cowl the full value of decommissioning wells it not makes use of. Currently, the bond quantities the fee requires oil producers to place as much as cowl the value of plugging wells only pay for about 16 percent of the cost, with state taxpayers choosing up the remainder of the tab.

But so long as the federal authorities is keen to assist us remedy this drawback, let’s not let tribal politics get in the manner. Take the money and begin fixing the drawback earlier than one other deserted nicely turns into an environmental disaster.