On Aug. 18, 2023, the state Department of Conservation’s California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) released the Cost Estimate Regulations for Oil and Gas Operations for official public comment under the Administrative Procedures Act.
The regulations provide requirements and methods for oil and gas operators to submit their cost estimates for plugging and abandoning of wells, decommissioning facilities, and site remediation on a specified schedule. The release begins a public comment period that ends on Oct. 4.
Public comment or questions can be submitted to: calgemcostestimates@conservation.ca.gov.
There are 44 abandoned wells in our backyard here in SLO County, and I am pissed. Seven years trying to get them capped and sealed. I encourage everyone to write a comment because we are all within spitting distance of the oil industry’s blatant, deadly health and safety violations. And, Biden signed onto granting operators with abandoned wells financial assistance. That’s not mentioned anywhere.
My comment:
Oil companies had a total sale of
$1 trillion in 2022. And rather than imposing a $25,000 a day fine for failure to plug and seal their abandoned wells per the conditions precedent to issuing a permit to drill, we are looking to subsidize and bail out offending and violating oil companies that have, with intention and forethought, refused to plug and seal abandoned wells.
You are asking taxpayers, who are not shareholders in these private companies and who do not receive any dividends from those extraordinary profits, to donate our hard-earned tax dollars towards capping and sealing oil companies’ willful neglect and sickening, careless, and deliberate safety code violations.
Those companies are bonded and insured. And you, CalGEM, delivered an order on Feb. 15, 2017, to all drilling operations with abandoned wells to seal them immediately or else. And the or else was a shutdown of the operation and a $25,000 a day per well penalty until the offending wells were rendered capped, sealed, and certified safe.
Your agency reneged on the order and simply walked away and did nothing. No enforcement of the penalties or closure of illegal operations was implemented. Really a colossal breach of trust and duty to uphold and enforce safety and health codes for our safety and well-being.
This form of neglect on your part institutionalized self-regulation for an industry that has a history of violating and ignoring any form of principles, ethics, and good business practices. Self-regulation is not conducive to and does not speak for the collective, the human factor of cause and effect on living, breathing beings. This form of governing is void of moral and ethical consequences that most certainly are going to adversely affect the principles of fair, beneficial, and cohesive application inherent upon social living beings.
If you had done your job seven years ago and applied the principles of moral turpitude to the oil industry, we would not be having this conversation. The oil industry played you, and you allowed it, and now you are playing us for the fool. Well, we are not buying it. We are not fools, and we know what is going on.
I object to one single dollar going to committing grand larceny to hijack taxpayer dollars to enrich professional criminals and reward them for screwing us over.
The deal was for the operators to cap, seal, and secure decommissioned wells immediately and restore the area to its original condition.
So, to fix this miscarriage of justice and gross infringement on our sense of safety and well-being, here’s the deal: Enforce the original agreement with the operators obliged to cap and seal the abandoned wells at their expense with the stipulation and understanding that a fine of $25,000 per day per well will be imposed until and when the condition is signed off as completed and certified safe.
That’s the deal. That’s what was originally agreed upon, and that is what we expect to happen going forward.
We, the taxpaying public, are not obliged to remedy and rectify bad business practices with our tax dollars. We are not a party to this agreement with the oil industry and therefore do not agree to any taxpayer monies going to enhance trillionaires’ bottom line at our expense.
This hearing is a frivolous display of action and waste of our precious time and resources. The issue at stake here is not about getting cost estimates but rather about the execution of satisfying the plugging and sealing of decommissioned wells by the responsible party upon order to do so.
It is useless to prove that which, when proved, is not relevant. The cost of plugging and sealing is not relevant to the actual previously mandated plugging and sealing.
May I remind you that the effect of law consists in the execution. The issue here is not asking a question about cost but rather giving the order to plug the dangerous abandoned wells now. Do your job, give the order to plug and seal those wells now. He who gives the order is taken himself to be the doer. Someone has to do it. And that someone is you, CalGEM. Do it.
Monies collected in fines go into enforcement, manpower, equipment, whatever is needed to ensure compliance with health and safety rules and regulations for our greater good and well-being. There are more than 150,000 uncapped, illegal wells. You do the math. Δ
Jean’ne Blackwell writes to New Times from San Luis Obispo. Write a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 24 – Sep 3, 2023.
