The oil and gas industry is getting out of a lot of obligations these days.

They have pushed for and gotten regulatory pauses, rollbacks, tax breaks, all kinds of

good stuff.

Although of course the American Petroleum Institute is still insisting that the industry

is quote-unquote not getting a bailout.

One of the big ways that the industry is getting off the hook for its responsibilities

is in the case of its wells, and more specifically what happens to them when they're not producing

oil or gas anymore.

That is becoming an even bigger problem amidst the COVID-19 pandemic because a lot of

wells have been temporarily idled, and some percentage of those will end up being abandoned

altogether.

Oil gas companies are already starting to go out of business in various parts of the

country and more are announcing their downfall every day.

It may just be seen whether demand will actually return to normal levels after the pandemic,

plus there will be an energy transition at some point.

And a lot of folks are starting to wonder what will happen to these oil and gas sites

once that transition gets underway.

In order to get permits to drill oil or gas wells, fossil fuel companies are required

to get permits, and with those permits they have to commit to plugging and remediating

well sites when they're done with them.

It's an expensive proposition, and one that the industry tends to put off as long as possible,

in part because no states actually require these companies to put up the money for plugging

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