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Abandoned Oil Wells In The Gulf Of Mexico | Earth Wise

June 7, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There have been offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico for 85 years. After all those decades of drilling, there are now more than 14,000 old, unplugged wells out in the water, and they are at risk of springing dangerous leaks and spills. There are now more unplugged, non-producing wells than active wells in the gulf. According to a new study, plugging all those abandoned wells could cost more than $30 billion.

Most of these wells are in federal waters and nearly 90% of them were owned at some point by one of the so-called supermajor oil companies: BP, Shell, Chevron, and Exxon. Under federal law, those companies would still be responsible for cleanup costs, even if they might have sold the wells in the past.

Oil and gas companies are legally responsible for plugging wells that are no longer in service, but such companies often go bankrupt, leaving wells orphaned and unplugged and taxpayers end up footing the bill. The 2021 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill sets aside $4.7 billion to plug orphaned wells, but that is nowhere near enough.

It may be possible to go after the supermajors to get them to pay for plugging wells in federal waters, but it will undoubtedly be a battle. In state waters, whose wells are generally in shallower locations, it is even more urgent to act because any pollution from the wells is more likely to reach shore and wreak environmental havoc.

As the world starts to transition away from fossil fuels, decades of mining and drilling in almost every corner of the world, including the oceans, has left behind the need for an immense plugging and cleanup effort.

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Price to Plug Old Wells in Gulf of Mexico? $30 Billion, Study Says

Photo, posted July 8, 2010, courtesy of John Masson / Coast Guard via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Antibiotics In Animal Agriculture | Earth Wise

April 13, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In animal agriculture, farmers use antibiotics to treat, prevent, and control animal diseases, and to increase the productivity of their operations. According to the FDA, approximately 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are purchased for use in food-producing animals.

The routine administration of antibiotics to farm animals for non-therapeutic purposes promotes the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with repercussions for human and animal health. As antibiotic-resistant bacteria spreads, medicines used to treat human diseases can become less effective.

According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Washington, a California policy restricting the use of antibiotics in farm animals is associated with a reduction in one type of antibiotic-resistant infection in people in the state. The findings, recently published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggest that regulations limiting the use of antibiotics in livestock can significantly impact human health.

In 2018, California Senate Bill 27 banned routine preventive use of antibiotics in food-animal production and any antibiotic use without a veterinarian’s prescription. Last year, the European Union passed a law restricting antibiotic use to only sick animals on farms. And coming this June, most antibiotics – those that are medically important to humans and animals – will be by prescription only in the United States.

Despite these changes, antibiotic resistance is projected to remain one of the biggest threats to human health over the next 50 years because resistance continues to grow and few new antibiotics are coming online.

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Restricting antibiotics for livestock could limit spread of antibiotic-resistant infections in people

Ranchers should prepare now for 2023 animal antibiotic guidelines

Photo, posted May 8, 2018, courtesy of Preston Keres / USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Drilling Rights In The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge | Earth Wise

February 2, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The battle to prevent oil and gas drilling rights from being sold in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has been going on for 40 years. The Trump administration spent nearly four years pushing to auction off those drilling rights and finally accomplished it in early January.

The ANWR was created in 1960 and is the largest intact wilderness in the U.S., covering nearly 30,000 square miles in Alaska. It is an important breeding habitat for polar bears as well as the home of more than 200 other species including caribou, arctic foxes, golden eagles, and snowy owls. Parts of it are also sacred ground for the indigenous Gwich’in people.

The auction carved out a 5% slice of the refuge for leases and proponents anticipated it would generate billions of dollars in revenues that would offset tax cuts in Alaska.

Of the 22 parcels of land offered, totaling 1.1 million acres, only 12 were bid on at all and the state of Alaska was the sole bidder on 9 of those. In total, the auction raised a paltry $14 million.

Whether the remarkable absence of interest was due to a lack of infrastructure or roads around the region, the decline of fossil fuel investments and use during the pandemic, or the anticipation that any leases would be the subject of endless legal battles by indigenous tribes and environmental activists, the net result was that the auction was basically a flop.

President Biden has stated that he is entirely against Arctic drilling, so the new administration is likely to try to repeal or interfere with any drilling leases or other industrial activity in the ANWR.

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Arctic Oil Drilling Plans Suffer ‘Stunning Setback’ as Almost ‘No One Shows Up’ For the Sale

Photo, posted July 3, 2019, courtesy of Alaska Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr. Photo Credit: Danielle Brigida/ USFWS

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Eco-Friendly Agriculture

October 21, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Modern agriculture has steadily destroyed native grasslands, among other ecosystems. In fact, farming is one of the most ecologically destructive things that humans do. But we do have to eat. In response, there is a growing movement for agrarian reform, from grain farming on the prairie, to agroforestry, to raising livestock more sustainably. Efforts are accelerating to develop a kinder, gentler agriculture adapted to a changing world.

One such effort has come from the Land Institute, an organization in Kansas that works on natural systems agriculture, which seeks to retain the ecological stability of the prairie with its perennial seed plants along with a grain and seed yield comparable to that from annual crops.

After four decades of effort, the institute has introduced its first commercial grain, a trademarked variety called Kernza. Kernza is a domesticated perennial wild grass – a so-called intermediate wheatgrass – that has a long, slender head that resembles wheat seeds. People describe its taste as sweet and nutty. Kernza is already being made into a cereal called Honey Toasted Kernza by Cascadian Farms. Patagonia Provisions – a spin-off from the clothing company – is making beer from the new grain.

Although Kernza is already being grown and sold commercially, it is not yet ready for prime time. Last year, there were only about 1,000 acres in cultivation and the yield is only a third to a tenth of the yield of wheat.

Developing a sustainable perennial polyculture of edible plants would have major benefits such as not having to plow every year, plants developing large root systems that can reach water far beneath the surface and, without annual plowing, having soil carbon remain in the ground.

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With New Perennial Grain, a Step Forward for Eco-Friendly Agriculture

Photo courtesy of Cascadian Farms/General Mills.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Are Big Cats In Big Trouble?

January 16, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to researchers with the National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative, cheetahs are much closer to extinction than previously thought. The research team has released a study, which was recently published in the journal PeerJ, that updates the cheetah population numbers in southern Africa, the largest of its remaining habitat.