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Description

Before Texas became the oil capital of the United States, the nation’s oil production relied almost exclusively on the Ohio River Basin. Early production in the region flourished, decades before some western states were even established. Due to this early prominence as a world-leader of oil and gas production before modern regulatory oversight, the Ohio River Basin now faces a proliferation of abandoned oil and gas wells, which present environmental, economic, and public health risks to nearly 25 million residents in the Ohio River Basin. Despite producing just one percent of the nation’s crude oil, the region accounts for almost half of registered abandoned wells in the United States. As regulations continue to change and U.S oil and gas development leads to the drilling of new wells, Ohio River Basin states must examine and implement policy measures to address the hundreds of thousands of wells already existing in the region. Coordinated reporting methods, reformation of the bond system, and other substantive policy changes can correct the issue before the consequences are irreparable.
This piece was originally published in November 2020 in the Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Law and is still ever-important as U.S. Congress seeks to combat the problem nationally. However, a continued lack of national uniformity means that states must work both individually and collaboratively to combat the unique issues their region faces.