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America Has Big Plans For Plugging Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells

September 9, 2024
x min read
America Has Big Plans For Plugging Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells

Abandoned oil and gas wells emit methane and also pollute the atmosphere with other toxic hydrocarbons. Now, the United States is on a mission to fix that.

What’s happening:

  • The United States Department of the Interior has announced $76M USD in new funding to accelerate plugging abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania

Why it matters:

  • Abandoned oil and gas wells emit enormous amount of methane gas and other toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, which is extremely harmful to the environment
  • This is not the first time the United States has stepped in on a federal level to fund the plugging of oil and gas wells, with the state of Texas previously launching a large commitment to plug oil and gas wells

Who is making moves:

By the numbers:

  • Methane gas is approximately 28x more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere
  • The United States of America has now made grant funding available for plugging oil and gas wells in 26 different states

Going deeper:

  • Turning methane reduction projects such as plugging abandoned oil and gas wells into high quality carbon credits is also something that Zefiro Methane has been on the leading edge of, previously entering into a purchase agreement with a subsidiary of renewable energy giant EDF Group for methane offset credits

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