Donald Trump’s Bailout of Fossil Fuel Companies May Cost States $280 Billion

2.6 million documented onshore oil wells in the United States need to be plugged, because they leak methane and pollute groundwater. (Ken Lund / Wikimedia Commons) This spring, states pitched the Trump administration on an innovative jobs proposal : use federal stimulus funds to hire thousands of unemployed fossil fuel workers to plug oil and gas wells leaking emissions that are intensifying the climate crisis. Instead, the Trump White House funneled nearly $100 billion in bailouts to oil and gas corporations through the Federal Reserve. That move enriched fossil fuel industry executives and investors who have been among Trump’s big boosters, but it has left a huge problem: state governments could now be on the hook for up to a quarter trillion dollars to plug methane-leaking wells that fossil fuel corporations have abandoned, according to a new report. The $280 billion price tag is the estimated cost of plugging onshore wells and remediating the surrounding land after they are no longer in operation, according to the study released today by Carbon Tracker , a think tank that documents the impact of the energy transition on capital markets. States from Colorado to Louisiana to Ohio are being warned that the […]

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