Years ago, some people I know were involved with the Potomac River Fisheries Commission. The ecowhackos around the Nation's Capital wanted to stop a Natural Gas well from being drilled near Pope's Creek, MD. One had been drilled at Colonial Beach, VA, and it was a 'dry hole', but seismic data indicated the prospects were better further East. These were people seriously concerned with the environment, because for most of them, it was their living on the line (fish, crabs, and oystering). I said to get them to take them to the old location by Colonial Beach (it had been about 6 months since the site had been reclaimed), and let the site do the talking.
The Environmentalist groups agreed, and drove them over to Colonial Beach, where they had trouble finding the old location.
They asked about it at one of the little country stores there, and the guy behind the counter said he knew where it was and would take them there. When they got there, there was an iron pipe sticking out of a lush meadow with the well data welded onto it: the dry hole marker required by law.
The folks I knew looked around and commented "This is the way we would want things done. There is nothing being done wrong here.", and refused to sign on to help stop the proposed well from being drilled (which was stopped anyway, through a misinformation campaign that likely robbed the Washington DC metro area of a source of Natural Gas, and possibly oil that could have been pipelined to the refinery at Piney Point, eliminating any possible spillage into tidewater estuaries from tanker operations at that facility).
The Oil and Gas industry has taken the forefront in many areas (ahead of regulators), partly because it wants good relations with landowners, and partly to avoid legacy lawsuits in the future. Many of the diagrams for drilling location design and environmental safeguards used by the BLM in its requirements originated with (Amerada) Hess, for instance.
While the industry is there to make money, certainly, it is counterproductive to leave behind messes that only lead to hard feelings and lawsuits. Good relations with mineral and land owners are as important as what lies beneath the surface when it comes to extracting the resources that are the lifeblood of the American Economy, and have been for 100 years or more. What's more, reclamation efforts for old wells continue to make things right.
The projection that only money matters is just that--projection by people who rarely really care about the environment as much as their paychecks and the power that comes with throwing monkey wrenches into the works.
Consider the 'war' against pipelines that left a protest site covered with 720 truckloads of debris and garbage, by alleged "Water Protectors" in a flood prone area. During that protest three different active pipelines were tampered with. The only oil spilled (2 barrels) was spilled because "environmentalists" had put holes in the pipeline before it was started up (they were caught and prosecuted).
In North Dakota, and other states as well, a reclamation bond must be posted before a permit to drill is issued. So the environmental messes proclaimed, usually the result of accidents, force majeure, or malicious activity, tend to be contained. The incidents where that is not the case are the rare exception, not the rule.
You want ecoterror? Just wait until you have no fuel to haul the cities' garbage out.
