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Republican Rep. Causer Blames DEP Database For Showing Conventional Oil & Gas Owners Abandoning, Not Plugging Their Wells; Industry Wants To Redefine Owner Responsibility For Their Abandoned Wells

Every week, PA Environment Digest reviews DEP’s oil and gas inspections and reports on the violations DEP issues to conventional oil and gas well owners whose permits show they are legally responsible for oil and gas wells abandoned and not plugged, threatening ground and surface water and leaking methane gas into the atmosphere.

DEP confirms the well ownership, the location of the well and its condition with photos in the field.

Those week-by-week reviews of DEP inspections show in the last 15 months, DEP issued 663 violations to those legally responsible owners for abandoned and unplugged wells.

Information obtained in a Right To Know request to DEP shows in 2023, 93 conventional well owners were found to be in violation of state law prohibiting well abandonment without plugging for 271 individual conventional oil and gas wells. Read more here.

Click Here for the list of 93 owners and their wells in violation. Read more here.

Information provided by the Department of Environmental Protection in response to that same Right To Know request shows DEP took enforcement action against 14 conventional oil and gas well owners that resulted in collecting $422,365 in penalties and bond forfeitures in 2023.

DEP took higher level enforcement actions against 15 other conventional well owners for violations in 2023, including issuing Field Orders, Administrative Orders and Compliance Orders and obtaining Court Orders, for spills, illegal disposal of waste, creating a health and safety hazards by venting gas and erosion and sedimentation BMP failures.

So far in 2024, DEP issued 392 violations to legally responsible conventional oil and gas owners for abandoning and not plugging their wells. Read more here.

Kurt Klapkowski, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, told the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee March 25--

“Unfortunately, reviewing inspection and compliance data developed since 2017, DEP has identified widespread non-compliance with laws and regulations in the conventional oil and gas industry, particularly regarding improper abandonment of oil and gas wells but also not reporting hydrocarbon and waste production and conducting mechanical integrity assessments.”

“Overall, of the 2,494 wells cited for abandonment between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2023--

-- 1,230 wells (approximately 49%) appear to have been abandoned after 1/1/2017;

-- 518 wells (approximately 21%) appear to have been abandoned prior to 1/1/2017; and

-- 746 wells (approximately 30%) were identified after 1/1/2017 as having been abandoned, but the precise date of abandonment is unknown based on the data included in this analysis.”

“From January 2023 through today, DEP has assessed over $2.3 million in penalties on [legally responsible] conventional oil and gas operators, issued dozens of administrative orders requiring plugging, and forfeited more than a hundred thousand dollars in bonds.”

Heading For Record Violations - Again

So far in 2024, DEP issued conventional well owners 2,217 violations of all types, heading toward a new record for breaking the law.

In 2023, DEP issued a record 6,860 violations. Read more here.

The culture of non-compliance DEP noted in a 2022 report on conventional oil and gas owner compliance very much continues unabated. Read more here.

It’s ‘Bad Data

Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron), Minority Chair of the House Environmental and Energy Committee, and Arthur Stewart of Cameron Energy, a major conventional well owner, said at a Committee hearing March 25, that “bad data” was responsible for conventional oil and gas owner abandoning their unplugged wells.

Rep. Causer said in a press release, “DEP’s propensity for publicizing incorrect, incomplete and misleading data is a major impediment to our efforts to plug wells that were abandoned so long ago that no responsible party remains to plug them.

“I think we all want to see the influx of federal dollars for well plugging be used wisely, but there are some significant impediments to that, including DEP’s flawed database.”

He said DEP and “like-minded” special interest [environmental] groups “continued to blame today’s conventional oil and gas producers for wells abandoned many decades or even more than a century ago, rather than focusing on initiatives that would actually resolve the problem.”

Click Here for a video of the Committee hearing.

Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) serves as Majority Chair of the House Environmental Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-7647 or sending email to: gvitali@pahouse.net. Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5075 or by sending email to: mcauser@pahousegop.com.

An Attempt Coming To Change Law

The comments by Rep. Causer and Stewart are setting up an attempt by the conventional oil and gas industry to change the law on legal responsibility for abandoned conventional wells.

DEP is enforcing current law which holds conventional well owners who own oil and gas wells responsible for their integrity and for meeting environmental standards in law and regulations.

The industry and their defenders, like Rep. Causer, are looking at changing the law and not making conventional owners responsible for wells they own that are abandoned and not plugged before some date in the past.

Conventional oil and gas owners are already exempt from putting up plugging bonds for any wells drilled before April 1985, but are still legally responsible for plugging.

This new change would put all the responsibility for plugging those wells on state taxpayers without question.

The conventional industry frequently gets Republican members to introduce last minute amendments to must-pass budget-related bills looking to gut Oil and Gas Act requirements.

Look for this to happen during this year’s budget discussions.

Gov. Shapiro - Holding Companies Accountable

In remarks at the press event marking the plugging of the 200th conventional oil and gas well on March 12, Gov. Shapiro issued a warning--

“Today, Pennsylvania is facing the consequences of a legacy left by an industry that made a buck off our natural resources and then got away with abandoning these gas wells without properly plugging them.

“That to me is unacceptable.”

“While we move quickly to plug more wells, I want you to know DEP is also working hard to hold companies accountable and aggressively push them to pay what they owe the good people of Pennsylvania.

“And wherever it's possible we will make sure that those responsible for these wells pay for the plugging, not the taxpayers of Pennsylvania or the taxpayers of this nation.

“And to be clear, a lot of these companies, especially those who are out of business, they'll do anything to avoid paying their legacy costs and paying their bill.

“And, I know there's some in the legislature, present company excluded, who shielded them from paying their bills in the past.

“That is not okay.

“We have work to do together to hold them accountable, while at the same time we're out plugging these wells.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time in our administration, and that's exactly what we're doing here.

“Accountability and advancing the cause of plugging these wells.”

Previous Articles - Abandoned Wells:

-- DEP Issued Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners 663 Violations For Abandoning, Not Plugging Wells In Last 15 Months; 392 In 2024 Alone [PaEN]

-- DEP Imposed $422,365 In Penalties On 14 Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners In 2023 For Abandoning Wells, Spills, Venting Gas; 93 Owners Cited For Abandoning 271 Wells [PaEN]

-- Shapiro Marks Plugging 200th Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Well: These Companies Will Do Anything To Avoid Paying For Plugging; It’s Not Okay Some In The Legislature Are Shielding Them; Text Well Locations [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - March 23 to 29 - Plugging Abandoned Shale Gas Wells, Waste Injection Wells; Failure To Stop Gas Venting [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - March 30 [PaEN]