New report warns that taxpayers could end up paying $3 billion for state's energy disaster — here's

[rangerrebew]

New report warns that taxpayers could end up paying $3 billion for state's energy disaster — here's why
 
Low-producing oil and gas wells across Colorado could cost taxpayers at least $3 billion to decommission, according to The Guardian.

What's happening?
A recent report from Carbon Tracker found that 27,000 oil and gas wells in Colorado generate $1 billion in revenue at most. With production volumes decreasing, these wells could be decommissioned. According to the state Energy and Carbon Management Commission, closing a single site could cost $110,000 or more. That means closing all 27,000 sites safely could cost between an estimated $4 billion and $5 billion.
 
Because of the difference in revenue and costs to decommission, the state needs to pay at least $3 billion, which could come at the expense of taxpayers.

Why is this report important?
Colorado is the fourth-largest oil producing state in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration. However, gas and oil produce air pollution, contaminate water, and can harm wildlife. With renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy, states can produce energy without these effects and help create jobs in new sectors. While the benefits are enormous and worth the investment, the cost to transition away from gas and oil wells can still be high.

"The biggest problem here is just the nature of this activity: You make a lot of cash at the beginning, and then you have a big cost at the end," Carbon Tracker Executive Director Rob Schuwerk said. "The way you cover a cost like that is you make people save along the way, and this is not done now."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/new-report-warns-that-taxpayers-could-end-up-paying-3-billion-for-state-s-energy-disaster-here-s-why/ar-AA1ogTeL?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=61b5b0c9a9b740288d61a682d657f556&ei=22

[Kamaji]

Colorado is the fourth-largest oil producing state in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration. However, gas and oil produce air pollution, contaminate water, and can harm wildlife. With renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy, states can produce energy without these effects and help create jobs in new sectors. While the benefits are enormous and worth the investment, the cost to transition away from gas and oil wells can still be high.

[Hoodat]

New report warns that taxpayers could end up paying $3 billion for state's energy disaster —

Let's be fair here.  Colorado voters knew what they were getting when they voted for this crap.

[Smokin Joe]

This is on the Colorado government (and the people who voted for this crap).

In North Dakota, reclamation bonds are required to be posted to reclaim the site (including plugging the well to be abandoned) before the well is drilled; production pads are regulated as to design to prevent pollution and contamination of groundwater in case of a spill, and even the coupling and decoupling of hoses is conducted over catch boxes to keep dribbles off the ground.

Mismanagement at some level of government has led to this 'problem', and no one is plugging stripper wells that I know of at this time (while oil is relatively high), so there must be some other regulatory skullduggery at play, perhaps to do with the disposal (re-injection) of produced water.