Bad actors in the oil and gas industry have a long history of, after extracting all the profitable oil and gas, using tricks such as asset transfer and bankruptcy to escape their plugging/cleanup obligations. That practice has left the landscape riddled with more than 30,000 abandoned wells, and taxpayers saddled with billions in reclamation costs. 

Before recent reforms, companies could lease public lands for as little as $2 an acre, drill, make their profits, and walk away—sticking you and me with the cleanup costs.

The long overdue 2023 bonding reforms finally put an end to this scam by requiring oil and gas companies to put up adequate financial guarantees to cover the cost of well plugging and cleanup, protecting taxpayers from being fleeced by these industry bad actors.

But now, the Trump administration is looking to roll back these critical protections.

The administration needs to side with taxpayers, not cheats and scammers. Tell them to protect taxpayers and ensure oil and gas companies clean up their own mess.