I had trouble with the first lies, first frame. "Fossil fuel" production does not emit a lot of greenhouse gasses. (as opposed to consumption thereof).
In about ten days the well is drilled, in another couple of weeks it can be completed and on line. Once tied into gathering pipelines, only hauling off and reinjecting produced water remains as the legacy of continuing emission, mostly vehicle exhaust from the trucks.
When it's all done, and a 5 acre pad can drain 4 square miles (or more) of reservoir, (we're talking, generally, ~16 million barrels of oil over the life of the wells), the wells are plugged, the pad reclaimed, and everything goes back to the old normal--not that wildlife doesn't adapt to the presence of the producing locations, just as domestic livestock do.
So overall environmental destruction: 5 acres out of 2560 acres (or more), not counting the access road (which will use as much pre-existing roadbed as possible, as much for economic as environmental concerns). Any pipelines will be buried, with little net effect on the surface long term.
Permanent post production structure: buried pipe, pad materials removed, site reclaimed.
Compare and contrast with the footings for windmills which will likely remain after the windmill is gone, or the acreage covered and deprived of life-giving sunlight by solar arrays, for intermittent energy not yet on demand, and more difficult to store, the latter with unknown effects on the ecological balance of the land it covers,from those on microfauna and microflora on up the food chain. I have not seen studies on the long term effects.
I live in a state where agriculture (farming and ranching) has been the source of bread and butter (literally) long before oil was discovered in the early 1950s. The State has regulated the oil industry, which is a major revenue source and employer, with the eye toward the day when the wells no longer produce and Agriculture becomes the single predominant factor in the economy. Coal has similarly been regulated, because despite the 500 year supply, the day will come when the last has been removed from the ground if we haven't figured out something different by then.
I have passed the places where wells were drilled early in my career, unable to spot where, exactly, because the dry hole markers were plates buried below plow depth or welded on pipes which were not evident from the road (the lease road and production/drill pad having been reclaimed). I doubt the monolithic foundations of wind towers will be removed to the point no one could tell where they were, and if that is the plan, the demolition of those massive concrete structures and disposal of the rubble should be added into the equation for their 'sustainability'.
