CRANE, Texas (AP) — There are about 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells nationwide that haven’t been properly plugged with cement. Many of the wells are releasing methane, which is a greenhouse gas containing about 86 times the climate-warming power of carbon dioxide over two decades. Some are leaking chemicals such as benzene, which is a known carcinogen, into fields and groundwater. Regulators don’t know where hundreds of thousands of the abandoned wells are. That’s because many were drilled before modern regulations and record-keeping systems were established. In recent years, abandoned wells have been found under brush deep in forests and beneath driveways in suburbia.
Forgotten oil and gas wells linger, leaking toxic chemicals
