America

TIL there is an estimated 300k-800k abandoned, uncapped oil and gas wells in the USA leaking methane and toxic chemicals. Many children live near them. 

Capping each can cost up to $1m. Full cost ≈ hundreds of billions.

TIL there is an estimated 300k-800k abandoned, uncapped oil and gas wells in the USA leaking methane and toxic chemicals. Many children live near them. 

Capping each can cost up to $1m. Full cost ≈ hundreds of billions. 

https://youtu.be/5PkcazdPQvU

musician: gigameshmusic.com | dev: github.com/gigamesh

Had no idea.  Seems like requiring folks to cap them when they are at end of life, similar to how environmental regulations require plans for landfill management and "covering" once full, might be a sensible way to solve this for net new wells going forward?

Still leaves the existing problem unsolved though.

Web3 content strategist, product marketer, creator of Is This The New Internet? Podcast.
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Unfortunately many of the wells are over a century old and there is no record of who drilled them. Capitalism baby!

Well its not like the companies who put them in place are lacking the funds to clean up their mess. If only there was an environmental protection agency of some sort that could step in and enforce these sort of expectations

Stuff like this makes my individual efforts in conservation and environmentally conscious decisions all seem so pointless.

Methane is also more damaging to the climate on a shorter time frame than co2

is this something worth building a company around? Likely to get energy credits from the Government and tax deductions. 