West Virginia could lose out on millions of dollars earmarked to help state regulators clean up abandoned natural gas wells as a result of an executive order halting federal funding that President Donald Trump signed on the day of his inauguration.
Regulators previously estimated they’d receive more than $200 million in federal funding to help clean up the thousands of orphaned wells scattered throughout the state. However, West Virginia could lose out on nearly $90 million of those funds.
The cleanup of abandoned wells has been a growing liability for the state as operators have walked away from their nonproducing wells, leaving them unplugged. If the operator of an abandoned well is unknown or files for bankruptcy, it becomes “orphaned,” and the cleanup falls to state regulators. West Virginia regulators previously estimated it costs about $124,000 to clean up an orphaned well.
Currently, regulators are responsible for cleaning up more than 6,000 orphaned wells in West Virginia. However, that number is considered to be greatly underestimated as there are tens of thousands more that aren’t documented.
Unplugged, nonproducing wells can pose significant health and environmental threats, including contaminating groundwater and emitting methane and other air pollutants.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the unplugged, non-producing oil and gas wells emitted 275,000 metric tons of methane in 2020; equivalent to emissions of more than 1.7 million gasoline-powered vehicles driven for one year.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $4.7 billion to states, tribes, and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to help clean up orphaned wells as an effort to address some of the damage left by the oil and gas industry. The money that was awarded was set to be distributed in installments, but Trump’s executive order halted those.
So far, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection has received $56.1 million, according to DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher. The agency expects to receive at least another $88.8 million, but that could change given the “fluidity of this situation,” added Fletcher. The state could get additional money if they spend the initial funding well.
Hours after he was sworn into office, Trump signed an executive order that immediately halted federal spending appropriated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Under the signed order, no funds from the legislation can be disbursed until White House officials determine whether the funding aligns with the executive order and administration’s policy.
The executive order also halted spending from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included billions of dollars for investments in clean energy and climate change mitigation.
The federal funding has played a key role in helping West Virginia officials clean up orphaned wells faster than in previous years. The initial $25 million grant awarded to the state by the federal government in 2023 helped plug 202 orphaned wells — about 10 times the number of wells state regulators cleaned up with state funds in fiscal year 2023.
The White House budget office issued a memo the week after Trump’s inauguration halting federal grants and loans. The action was temporarily blocked by federal judges. Though the memo was later rescinded by the White House, courts later determined that the Trump administration had kept funds frozen in violation of those federal orders.
Many DEP programs rely on federal grants for funding, including one that cleans up abandoned coal mines and another that provides money for water and sewer programs.
While these programs can continue as normal during short funding pauses, Fletcher said, “Longer interruptions could be more problematic.”