WASHINGTON— Conservation organizations filed a legal petition today calling on the Trump administration to bar oil and gas companies that have failed to plug old wells and remove inactive platforms from obtaining new offshore drilling rights.
“Federal officials need to stop handing out new leases to deadbeat oil companies that skip out on their responsibilities and put marine life at grave risk,” said Rachel Mathews, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our oceans aren’t the oil industry’s junkyards. They’re home to wildlife who deserve unpolluted places to live. Oil companies should have to play by the same rules as everyone else. If they make a mess, they need to clean it up.”
More than 2,700 wells and 500 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were overdue for decommissioning as of June 2023, according to a 2024 Government Accountability Office investigation. In the Pacific, roughly 100 unused wells require permanent plugging and eight platforms that should be decommissioned remain in the water. This backlog will continue to grow if Trump’s Interior Department allows oil companies to expand drilling operations while deferring their cleanup obligations.
“No one wants to see these wells rust and fall into the ocean like they do. There’s a lot of work left to do. We’ve got to finish the job. Every abandoned well and rusting platform left in the Gulf is a threat to our fisheries, our coastal economies, and the safety of coastal communities. Fossil fuel companies walk away from their messes, and it’s our people who pay the price in lost income, polluted waters, and public health risks. Allowing the oil and gas industry to create even more messes while decades worth of rusting, leaking infrastructure still sit in our waters is wildly irresponsible,” said Scott Eustis, community science director for Healthy Gulf. "Decommissioning isn’t just cleanup, it’s an opportunity to create good paying, local jobs that restore our coast and protect the livelihoods that depend on it.”
Decommissioning preserves jobs for oil and gas workers while protecting wildlife and coastal ecosystems. Decaying wells and pipelines may leak oil, chemicals, methane and heavy metals. In late April an unplugged oil well near Garden Island Bay, La., spilled nearly 172,000 gallons of oily liquid into coastal marshes. The 82-year-old well had been inactive for decades before the blowout.
“Federal officials have for too long had little to no response to the environmental dangers of abandoned offshore oil wells,” said Joanie Steinhaus, ocean program director for Turtle Island Restoration Network. “These wells leak oil and hazardous materials, harm air and water quality, contribute to climate change and are a continuous detrimental threat to wildlife and human health. The industry must clean up their mess before any new leases are issued.”
Oil companies sometimes avoid decommissioning by selling old oil wells to smaller companies that can’t afford to decommission them. These companies may ultimately go bankrupt, leaving “orphaned” infrastructure in the ocean that the government is left to clean up using taxpayer money. The Interior Department is currently responsible for approximately $183 million in offshore clean-up costs from just nine company bankruptcies.
Photos and video of offshore drilling infrastructure are available from Healthy Gulf; 2024 aerial photos are here and 2025 photos are here. Photos dating back to 2013 are also available upon request.
