By Rev. Mitchell Hescox & Kim Anderson, Evangelical Environmental Network

This guest essay first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on July 18, 2022, the last day for Gov. Wolf to decide whether to sign, veto or let House Bill 2644 (Causer-R-Cameron) become law without his signature.

If it becomes law, the bill would block any increase in conventional oil and gas well plugging bonds, exempting pre-1985 wells (which is most of the currently active 100,500 wells) from any bonding leaving taxpayers liable for $5.1 billion in cleanup costs.

The text of the guest essay follows--

Just recently, Republicans pushed a bill through the legislature, ensuring its passage by tying it to the budget deal. It is one of the most egregious, inequitable, and unjust bills to pass the legislature in recent memory.

The bill, called HB 2644, defines just how liable Pennsylvania’s oil and gas producers are for cleaning up their messes once they finish pumping a well.

Chances are, you haven’t heard of HB 2644. It doesn’t make for flashy headlines.

But how’s this for flashy: HB 2644 hands oil and gas operators over a $3 billion gift, shifting that liability to us, Pennsylvania taxpayers. 

It will most certainly add to the existing cache of orphaned wells that the industry has already left behind, a number estimated to be between 200,000 and 500,000. 

It cements a legacy of pollution that includes not only leaking methane — a greenhouse gas 86 times more powerful than CO2 in its first 20 years in the atmosphere — but also fouled streams, polluted air, and harmed our children’s health.

All of this because many in the industry are allowed to simply walk away from their wells without plugging or remediating them. And the Legislature is practically encouraging them to do so.

HB 2644 locks in this offensive and unjust arrangement by forcing operators to pay barely more than 3% of the cost to truly clean up their tapped wellheads. The operators will pay just $1 for every $33 their profit-making enterprise costs to clean up.

Republicans introduced House Bill 2644 to block a proposal taken up by PA Environmental Quality Board (EQB) in November 2021. That proposal would have increased well bonding requirements for both conventional and unconventional (fracking) well drillers to cover the actual taxpayer costs when industry walks away from their responsibilities.

The oil/gas industry places the cost for plugging wells as starting at $33,000 per well. The latest estimate from the Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) puts the average cost near $70,000.

Yet this unfair and unjust legislation sets the maximum bond at $2,500 per well or $100,000 for unlimited wells, prohibits EQB from raising bonds for 10 years, and most egregiously exempts pre-1985 wells from requiring bonds (the vast majority).

My late Mom always told me, “If you make a mess, clean it up!” For over a century, Pennsylvania well drillers have left a mess, with more orphaned wells than any other state. 

Between 2016 and 2021, DEP records show 4,270 violation notices for operators trying to abandon wells without plugging them. 

Why should any of us believe that they will ever do anything different?

The disaster of hundreds of thousands of poisonous abandoned wells dotting the Commonwealth never would have happened if we had had proper bonding requirements in place. 

But HB 2644 adds insult to injury as it harms our wallets, our kids’ health, our air, our water, and also lowers property values.

What’s more, it could threaten a part of Pennsylvania’s potential share of the $4.5 billion Infrastructure Investment and Job Act’s intended to fund plugging wells. 

Pennsylvania could lose out on as much as $100 million of this federal funding, because the funds are only available to those states that increase bonding requirements, not decrease them as HB 2644 does.

The Bible is clear on fairness, justice, and righteousness. 

As the Hebrew Bible prophet Amos proclaims, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” 

HB 2644 is neither just, righteous, nor fair. Simply put, it is immoral. It is driven by the oil and gas industries’ craven greed and propped up by their friends in the legislature who care little for our children — for their health or their futures.

No matter what promises Gov. Tom Wolf made to the legislature to pass the budget, it’s unbiblical and immoral to allow House Bill 2644 to become law. 

He only has until today, July 18, to veto it. 

Rev. Mitchell Hescox is the president and a Pennsylvania co-director of the Evangelical Environmental Network. Kim Anderson is a Pennsylvania co-director.

NewsClip:

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: A Shale Gas Well Met An Abandoned Conventional Well A Mile Away - How Did It Happen?

Related Articles:

-- PA Environmental Council: Without A Veto Of HB 2644, PA's Abandoned Oil & Gas Well Problem May Be All But Permanent  [PaEN]

-- PA Environmental Council/Environmental Defense Fund + 12 Other Groups: HB 2644 Unjustifiably Limits Bonding For Oil & Gas Wells, Risks Eligibility For Federal Well Plugging Funds  [PaEN]

-- Gov. Wolf Now Has To Decide To Hold Oil & Gas Drillers Accountable, Or Create A $5.1 Billion Cleanup Liability For Taxpayers  [PaEN]

-- New Abandoned Wells: DEP Records Show Abandoning Oil & Gas Wells Without Plugging Them Is Pervasive In Conventional Drilling Industry; Who Is Protecting Taxpayers?  [2.23.22]

-- 12 Unconventional Shale Gas Drillers Issued DEP Notices Of Violation For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them At 35 Well Pads In 17 Counties [3.2.22]

-- DEP Issues 20% More NOVs To Oil & Gas Well Drillers For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them In 2nd Quarter [PaEN]

 -- DEP Federal ‘Orphan’ Well Plugging List Includes 7,300 Active Conventional Wells With Identified Owners; DEP Says Cost Recovery A Priority  [5.23.22]

PA Environment Digest:

-- Links To Conventional Oil & Gas Drilling Articles

Related Articles This Week:

-- DEP Oil & Gas Advisory Board Meets July 25 To Hear Presentation On Penn State Study Finding Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Dumped On Unpaved Roads Contains Pollutants That Exceed Human-Health Standards  [PaEN]

-- Bradford Era: 24-Inch Natural Gas Pipeline Ruptures, Explodes In McKean County Causing Wildfire; Force Majeure Declared In 2 States  [PaEN]

-- The Allegheny Front - Reid Frazier: DEP Investigating EQT Shale Gas Well Residents In Greene County Claim Is Contaminating Their Drinking Water

-- WPSU: EPA Asks Big Dog Energy Bitcoin Mining Operation In Clearfield County For Information  [DEP Issued Company 9 NOVs For Attempting To Abandon Wells Without Plugging Them ]

-- EQB DEP Continues Review Of Oil & Gas Well Bonding Petitions; Expects To Bring Methane Control Reg To EQB For Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Soon; pproves Municipal Waste Recycling General Permit  [PaEN]

[Posted: July 18, 2022]  PA Environment Digest

7/18/2022