In a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Bennet called on her to move forward on rulemaking to “address inadequacies in the federal oil and gas system as was included” in the regulatory agenda.

“By taking steps to fix this broken system, we will help ensure that companies ─ not taxpayers – bear the costs for cleaning up drilling sites, while ensuring responsible stewardship of our federal lands,” Bennet wrote.

A 2019 Government Accountability Office report found that federal bonds don’t provide adequate financial assurance because most are set at minimum levels and haven’t been adjusted for inflation since the 1950s and 1960s. The BLM’s minimum requirements are $10,000 per individual lease, or alternatively $25,000 for a blanket, statewide bond or $150,000 for a nationwide one. Legislation that Bennet continues to pursue would require a minimum bond or other financial assurance of $150,000 per lease or $500,000 for a statewide bond.

Earlier this year, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission adopted new rules that require far stricter financial assurance requirements than are required by the BLM. For now, companies are exempted from the more stringent state rules in cases where they already have provided federal financial assurance for the same well, oil and gas location or facility. That exemption will continue until no later than 90 days after the effective date of any BLM rule updating the federal bonding requirements, or no later than Oct. 15 of next year, whichever comes first.

After that, state oil and gas regulators will determine in the case of individual companies if the financial assurance required by the federal government is substantially equivalent to the state requirement, and if not, what additional, non-duplicative financial assurance should be required by the state.

Bonding requirements are intended to help ensure that money is available for dealing with old wells and sites in cases such as their corporate owners becoming defunct and leaving the facilities “orphaned.”

“(T)he challenge that dangerous orphaned wells pose on our federal lands in Colorado and across the West demands immediate action across the government,” Bennet said in the letter. “… These wells release harmful pollution affecting our water and air, pose a hazard to fish and wildlife, and can impair other uses of public lands such as recreation.”

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and Bennet told Haaland that methane pollution from abandoned oil and gas wells is the 10th-largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the country. He said the BLM currently holds bonds that are worth just over $2,000 per well, though the cost to plug and reclaim a modern well can exceed $300,000 on average.