Defunct Oil Wells Are a Problem. Union Workers Could Be the Solution.

With a 150-year legacy in fossil fuel exploration, the nation is littered with remnants of bygone oil booms and busts. Recent environmental concerns and federal funding have led to more diligent recordkeeping, but experts suspect the true number of orphan wells exceeds official tallies. Records across states reveal more than 100,000 orphan wells, but the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission estimates a total of around one million orphan wells.

Well remediation could stimulate struggling economies. Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are likely to receive more than $1.3 billion combined through the orphan well program, which would translate to more than 2,400 jobs, according to a February report from the Ohio River Valley Institute, or ORVI, a think tank based in Appalachia. The report also found that workers’ paychecks could stimulate the local economy enough to create another 11,000 jobs. True Transition, an organization that advocates for an egalitarian energy transition to renewables, estimates that federal funds headed to the Gulf Coast would similarly create thousands of jobs.

But what kinds of jobs will they create? When the first batch of funds reached Louisiana two years ago, the state’s Department of Natural Resources awarded all $25 million to two subcontractors, Dynamic Group and Lemoine Disaster Recovery. Neither had any experience in well remediation—which remains unchanged, as both have simply subcontracted their work to other companies.