Kentucky to get $25M to plug old oil and gas wells. Here's what it means for jobs, climate

A $25 million federal grant is coming to Kentucky's orphaned oil and gas well cleanup program as part of the Biden administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The initial funding will allow for plugging of about 1,200 wells and will better equip and staff the state's orphaned well program to manage and monitor existing wells, which can pose a serious environmental and public health threat.

Though wells are scattered all over Kentucky, the state plans to "prioritize areas with wells prone to leakage, hindering land development, affecting communities, damaging croplands or negatively impacting water resources," according to a news release from the governor's office.

Here's what to know about the funding and well program:

How this funding helps Kentucky's economy

The funding is expected to create 180 jobs, the release said. In addition to properly staffing the state's well program, the funding will generate jobs through the remediation work itself.

Who will get the contracts on the well remediation remains to be seen, but contracts could be awarded by the end of September.

The remediation also has the potential to improve farmland and property values, particularly in some of the impoverished areas in rural Kentucky, by removing the presence of methane and reclaiming the land.

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Current regulations are meant to hold oil and gas companies responsible for remediating wells they own, but in many cases, that doesn't happen.

Taxpayers often end up footing the bill for wells drilled before current regulation, and sometimes for newer wells, when owners escape liability through bankruptcy or other loopholes.

The result: thousands of orphaned wells littering Kentucky's landscape, spewing methane into the air.

What this funding means for the environment

If not properly remediated, abandoned oil and gas wells continuously emit methane into the atmosphere.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with a 100-year global warming potential 25 times higher than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and about a third of methane emissions come from the natural gas and petroleum industries.

Plugging orphaned wells is one easy way to cut down emissions.

"Curbing methane is low-hanging fruit, in terms of dealing with climate change," said Ted Boettner, a senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute.

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Kentucky has more than 14,000 documented wells in need of remediation, but many more likely exist off the books.

Here, in the Ohio River Basin, "was the beginning of the oil boom," Boettner said. Back then, in the late 19th century, a lack of regulations created a free-for-all.

"People plugged wells by throwing tree trunks and linens and all kinds of stuff down them," he said.

That has left many dried-up wells in the hands of the state, which largely lacks the resources to properly remediate them.

And even after a well is properly plugged, it must be monitored for leaks. A decade later, and methane could be escaping again.

Is more funding on the way?

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill earmarked $4.7 billion for plugging wells across the nation.

But with some experts estimating around a million wells in need of remediation, that funding is just the beginning, Boettner said.

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There's a lot of money on the table, but many states are in need. Pennsylvania, for example, could have hundreds of thousands of wells.

In the meantime, Kentucky will continue to pursue future rounds of federal funding. In the next five-year phase of the program, the state could receive another $79 million, according to the governor's release.

Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. He can be reached at cgiffin@gannett.com or on Twitter @giffin_connor.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky receives funding for oil and gas well remediation