PA Environment Digest Blog: State, United Mine Workers Announce First-In-PA Registered Apprenticeship Program To Plug Abandoned Conventional Oil And Gas Wells; DEP Issued 722 Violations For Well Abandonment So Far In 2024

On August 26, the Shapiro Administration and the United Mine Workers of America announced a new registered apprenticeship program to train workers to plug conventional oil and gas wells, helping to protect the environment and public health while providing workers with in-demand skills and family-sustaining wages.

The new program will be run out of the United Mine Workers of America Career Centers, Inc.’s (UMWACC) Ruff Creek Training Center in Greene County where Governor Josh Shapiro visited earlier this month to highlight bipartisan investments in workforce development.

UMWACC’s Gas Well Capping Technician program – the first-ever registered apprenticeship program for UMWA – provides workers with the knowledge to plug abandoned and orphaned wells that have the potential to cause health, safety, or environmental concerns and to mitigate harmful emissions and provide an economic boost to rural Appalachian communities transitioning away from fossil fuel economies.

“We have a huge abandoned well problem in Pennsylvania, and we need qualified and well-trained people to plug them. There are more than 350,000 orphaned and abandoned wells across our Commonwealth – and they make up nearly 8% of our total methane emissions.” said Department of Environmental Protection Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “Sooner or later, every orphaned well is going to be a threat to the environment and public health, and we need people with the skills and training to plug the wells and restore the surrounding landscape. In addition to removing the threat that old wells pose, some active wells could find new life as geothermal wells, capturing buried heat for clean energy.”

The Gas Well Capping Technician program is officially registered with the Apprenticeship and Training Office, housed within the state Department of Labor & Industry, and will train workers on the following topics: safety, well capping techniques, cement properties and skills, and land remediation.

“The Shapiro Administration is committed to addressing the needs of in-demand industries and preparing workers with the skills needed to be successful in our workforce,” said L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker. “The Registered Apprenticeship Occupation of Well Capping Technicians program offers a solution to both of those goals, by providing real career opportunities for individuals dedicated to the environmental and public health of our Commonwealth.”

“This is a positive step toward addressing unemployment in Appalachia's coal mining communities,” said UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts. “The program will not only help stop leaking gas and oil wells but also provide workers with family-sustaining wages. Capping abandoned and orphaned wells is expected to take decades.”

“We are very excited about this program,” said Clemmy Allen, Executive Director of the UMWA Career Centers, Inc., a nonprofit 501c3 company. “The Well Capping Technician is one of the in-demand occupations in which dislocated coal miners and their families, as well as all those residing in rural mining communities of Appalachia, can train for without relocating. The partnership with the UMWA International union ensures workers will be paid family sustaining wages with benefits in good union jobs. We are proud to sponsor this program.”

Pennsylvania has a long history of energy development, including the first commercial oil well in 1859.

[The conventional oil and gas industry also has a long history of abandoning wells as a routine business practice to avoid responsibility for plugging them and sticking taxpayers with the bill. How do you think we now have 350,000 abandoned conventional wells? Read more here.

[This practice continues today. So far in 2024, DEP has issued 722 new and continued violations to conventional oil and gas well owners for well abandonment. Read more here.]

In 2022 the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded Pennsylvania an initial grant of $25 million to plug conventional orphaned and abandoned gas wells. DEP has plugged more than 250 wells since Governor Josh Shapiro took office, more than have been plugged over the last nine years combined.

Learn more about abandoned conventional oil and gas wells by visiting DEP’s Abandoned & Orphan Conventional Oil & Gas Well Program webpage.

Click Here for the complete Shapiro Administration announcement.

NewsClips:

-- Tribune-Democrat: Shapiro, Mineworkers Create Apprenticeship To Plug Oil & Gas Wells Abandoned By Conventional Well Owners

-- Wilkes-Barre Times: State Announces Apprenticeship Program To Plug Oil, Gas Wells Abandoned By Conventional Well Owners

Resource Links:

-- DEP Issues 711 Violations To Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners For Abandoning Wells So Far In 2024 [PaEN]

-- DEP To Hold Information Sessions On New Orphan Conventional Oil & Gas Well Plugging Grant Program Aug. 26, 27 & 30 [PaEN]

-- DEP Issues Violations To 16 Owners Of 5,374 Conventional Oil & Gas Wells For Failing To Submit Annual Production, Waste Generation/Disposal, Well Integrity Reports [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - August 24 to 30 - Water Pipeline Blowout; 9-Year-Old Hits Conventional Gas Well; 5 Abandoned Shale Gas Wells [PaEN]

-- Range Resources Shale Gas Water Pipeline Suffers Blowout In Washington County [PaEN]