Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) called the full committee hearing today at the urging of Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Senator Murkowski has been a strong advocate for the full remediation of these wells, and has addressed the issue with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, as well as with Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey.

The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey dug 136 wells between 1944 and 1982, the majority of which reside within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). These wells have since been transferred to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency under the Department of the Interior. For 68 years these wells have been considered “out of sight, out of mind” by the federal government.

Of these 136 wells, only 16 have properly been plugged and abandoned to the State of Alaska’s standards, the same standards to which BLM is required by law to follow. Of those 16 wells, only 9 were plugged by BLM and the North Slope Borough plugged the remaining 7 wells.

The BLM’s failure to remediate these wells presents a double standard that the State of Alaska is required to enforce on other operators who are content to follow the rule of law. There are only seven wells in the State of Alaska that are not in compliance with the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), but all seven are under a remediation process between the well owners and the AOGCC.

The federal government is the only operator in the State of Alaska failing to meet and maintain state and federal standards.

Commissioner Foerster testified that these wells are nothing short of “crimes against the environment.”

While the Department of the Interior claims they do not have the funding to tackle these ticking time bombs, Rep. Millett reminded the BLM in her testimony that they have received $9.4 billion in lease sales over the past ten years. This money could have easily funded the full remediation of all 120 wells.

Arctic Power is committed to the responsible development of arctic resources, and we are appalled that in a state with some of the highest environmental standards in the world the federal government can choose to simply ignore their own messes. We call on the federal government to become an example of safe and proper development, not to be an example of how improper exploration.

MEDIA

Pictures of the legacy wells can be found here.

A video of the full U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing can be found here.