While more money for cleanup is viewed as a win for landowners and the environment, it also raises questions about whether the “polluter pays” principle is being flouted. It was always the intention that companies that profited from wells would pay for their eventual cleanup — not the taxpayer.
As orphan wells become something of a go-to for politicians looking for ways to infuse cash into a struggling economy, we wanted to take a step back and look at what got us here. Hot tip: it wasn’t the pandemic.