“Remember, we spent $40 million over 30 years.
Inspectors have been in the field verifying the location and conditions of about 500 orphan wells that the agency can group into contracts and quickly put out for bid.
Formula grants — which are based on a state’s inventory of orphan wells and its recent oil and gas job losses — are expected to bring about $300 million to Pennsylvania.
At its peak, DEP could be running more than 300 multi-well plugging contracts in a year, according to the agency’s projections.
But it is something to really focus on — how we can do everything possible to prepare for a smooth transition into this era of greater funding.
There’s no formal training program for plugging professionals, Mr. Plants said, and training newbies is expensive and time consuming.
Of Plants and Goodwin’s 55 employees, about 10 now live in other states like Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan.