It’s an exciting moment when legislators put their feet down to say enough is enough, especially when the feet are bipartisan. SB22-197 on creating an Orphan Oil and Gas Wells Enterprise offers such an instance.

Typically Republicans don’t join in with Democrats when fees for an enterprise are involved. In this case, two GOP bill sponsors, Sen. Ray Scott and Rep. Perry Will, have joined with Democrats, Senate President Steve Fenberg and Rep. Mike Weissman, to create an enterprise fund to plug orphaned wells.

What’s so unusual about this collaboration are the fees. Depending on the size of the oil and gas operator, the fees will run from $125 to $225 per well! It’s paid annually! Maximum annual revenue would be approximately $11.25 million based on roughly 50,000 open wells at $225 per-well. Over five years, that’s about $56 million.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) will decide which operators pay $125 per-well and which pay $225 per-well annually. Some perspective. The average cost to insure a gas-powered car is $136 per-month according to Nerd Wallet.

The state currently has somewhere between 400 to 500 orphaned wells. These wells are abandoned, in that they no longer produce fossil fuel, and they are not plugged, so they emit methane and other climate heating pollution into the environment.

Apparently, the bill sponsors are counting on American Rescue Plan public tax dollars to take care of those wells. It costs somewhere around $10,000 to $75,000 to plug a well, depending on whether the holes are vertical or horizontal. The state faces somewhere from $5 million to $37 million to plug the current inventory.

Some wells can cost much more than $75,000 to plug. Wells in the Los Angeles metro area have cost up to a couple of million as they’re in the middle of dense residential areas. Recent drilling in Colorado has put wells as close as 500 feet to residences and schools. These wells are generally horizontal and more expensive to put a cork in.

The worry of Colorado taxpayers concerned about the orphan well problem is that 19,000 wells may be at risk of orphan-dom, based on information from COGCC meetings on how much bonding oil and gas companies should put up to cover plugging costs. The wells are possible orphans either because they’ve already been abandoned for a period of time or operators don’t have the money to plug them.

Some environmental groups want operators to put up the total estimated cost of plugging their wells before drilling. The COGCC is currently leaning toward a tiered bonding system that will depend on the assets of operators. So Chevron, with thousands of wells in Colorado, may pay a $3 million blanket bond while smaller operators may end up negotiating with the COGCC on their well plugging bond amounts.

The bill sets up the enterprise fund for five years to accumulate up to $100 million maximum dollars. At $75,000 per-well, the state will be able to plug 1,333 orphan wells within the $100 million budget. Given fees established in the bill, it’s impossible for the fund to reach $100 million in five years unless the COGCC substantially raises the amounts, which it has authority to do.

If the state faces a 19,000 orphan well problem, the $100 million enterprise will not do the trick. Take a middling price of $40,000 to plug each well – the cost will be over $700 million. This doesn’t account for the expense of the bad air we’ve breathed over the last decade.

The state is feeling the pinch from the Environmental Protection Agency because we’re exceeding allowed air-quality standards. Unplugged wells don’t help to clean up our air, so the longer this orphan well problem lingers, the less likely we’ll meet federal clean-air standards any time soon.

To get a feel for the problem of dirty air from the vast array of polluting sources, including cars, industrial operations, oil and gas drilling, and Suncor, just take a trip into the mountains. Drive beyond Idaho Springs up to Berthoud Pass or Georgetown. Then turn around and drive back down toward the metro area. You’ll see bright blue skies in the mountains. You’ll see a dirty haze as you top the ridges to come down into the city. That’s what’s at stake.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.