Infrastructure plan: $33M to clean up hundreds of oil wells

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Biden administration says $33 million in infrastructure money will be used to clean up some 277 of an estimated 15,000 abandoned oil and gas wells on federal land.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland says the money is part of $250 million provided through the infrastructure law for cleaning up orphaned wells and well sites on federal public lands, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and national forests.

Wildlife refuges and a park in Louisiana hold 163 of the high priority wells covered in Wednesday’s announcement. Others are in California, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan on Monday.