For years, large drillers in California sold unprofitable wells to smaller companies willing to wring the last drops of oil out of them. The process essentially kicked the cost of cleaning up oil fields — pumping concrete down well bores, removing tanks and pipelines — to operators with less ability to pay for the eventual cleanup.
Policymakers and advocates predicted that taxpayers — not the oil companies themselves — would ultimately have to pay billions for remediation once those oil and gas operations run dry. Unplugged wells emit climate-warming methane and pose long-term hazards to soil and groundwater.
