Colorado's governor has ordered state regulators to accelerate the cleanup of inactive oil and gas wells whose owners have walked away.
July 18, 2018, at 7:01 p.m.
By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's
governor ordered state regulators on Wednesday to accelerate the
cleanup of inactive oil and gas wells whose owners have walked away.
Gov. John Hickenlooper also told regulators to study
whether the state requires companies to post a big enough bond before
they start drilling. The bonds are designed to cover the cost of
plugging inactive wells and cleaning up the sites if the company fails
to do it.
Colorado has about 260 wells considered "orphans" because
no owner can be found, or the owner is unwilling or unable to deal with
them. About 110 other oil and gas sites without wells on them are also
orphaned.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said that number will increase
because some energy companies go out of business and previously unknown
orphaned wells are being discovered.
Read more:https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/colorado/articles/2018-07-18/colorado-to-accelerate-cleanup-of-orphaned-oil-gas-wells
