The U.S. Bureau of Land Management began the next steps in a 2022 settlement by issuing an order to E&B Natural Resources to plug 11 dormant oil wells and remove the surrounding infrastructure within the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
The settlement occurred after Los Padres ForestWatch and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2020 for approving an E&B Natural Resources permit for a new oil well and the replacement of a rundown pipeline in the monument, claiming that this decision violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
“It’s exciting; not only did we stop new oil wells being constructed, but this settlement agreement signals a new era for the monument,” ForestWatch Executive Director Jeff Kuyper told the Sun. “We’re starting to phase out oil infrastructure, and we’re very excited that this is the first step of what will be a significant amount of work done to return the area to its natural conditions.”
After going through a year-long environmental review process, BLM ordered E&B to obliterate three roads, remove pipelines and electrical infrastructure, plug the 11 wells, and replant native plants in the area within five years, he said. There are currently nine active oil wells on the monument and 24 others that no longer produce oil, according to the California Department of Conservation’s Well Finder data.
“These were the 11 that BLM initially ordered the oil company to remove in 2013,” Kuyper said. “Now we have a much more enforceable order that’s been issued, we can focus on those as the initial step, and we’re ready to move on to phase two: addressing the remaining wells at the national monument.”
Sarah Denos, lead public affairs specialist for BLM, told the Sun that BLM does not provide comment on matters related to litigation.
While it’s the BLM’s responsibility to ensure the company complies with the order, Kuyper added that this settlement gives ForestWatch and the Center for Biological Diversity the ability to go back to court if the timeline is not met, and holds a large oil company accountable for its actions.
“There are thousands of these defunct oil wells that have been left on the landscape that the oil industry has not taken any action to remove because it’s cheaper for the oil companies to keep the oil wells in place,” Kuyper said. “Yet that leaves taxpayers hooked with the bill for thousands of oil wells and billions of dollars.”
What often happens is oil companies will come into areas like the Carrizo Plain National Monument, pump out oil, and then dissolve the company when they expend resources, said Ileene Anderson, Center for Biological Diversity’s senior scientist.
“Not only are they commodifying a product out of our public lands for private profit, but then to stick the taxpayer with the cleanup costs—it shows a broken system,” Anderson said. “In this case, the company still owns those wells, so they are still liable for cleanup.”
This settlement flags to other oil companies that they are responsible for cleaning up their own mess and need to consider that in their cost of production, she said.
“There’s consequences to their business models and they need to be ready to, at the end of the life of the oil well, figure out what they are going to have to do to clean up their own mess,” Anderson said.
E&B Natural Resources couldn’t be reached before the Sun’s deadline.
This article appears in Aug 10-20, 2023.