Pa. limited a board's power to regulate abandoned oil and gas wells. Democrats want to restore it.
HARRISBURG — Across Pennsylvania, unplugged oil and gas wells spew a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and contaminate soil and water.
Last year, the Pennsylvania legislature stripped an independent board of its ability to use a tool designed to keep drillers from abandoning wells without plugging them.
Now, with Democrats in charge of the state House, there’s an effort to reverse that decision.
The state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee passed a bill Tuesday along party lines that would restore the Environmental Quality Board’s ability to raise bond prices on conventional drillers.
The legislation is part of a continued effort to plug hundreds of thousands of abandoned and orphaned conventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania. The state expects to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding over the next five years to seal those wells, though that money can cover only a fraction of the need.
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2023/05/pa-legislature-abandoned-oil-gas-wells-bond-prices-climate-change/
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