Texas Legislature Increases Well Plugging Budget as Backlog Grows

Inside Climate News · By Martha Pskowski · last updated June 25, 2025 – 4:19 PM

The Railroad Commission’s program for sealing orphan oil and gas wells will get an additional $100 million over the next two years. But advocates say policy changes are needed to prevent the list of orphan wells from continuing to grow.

By Martha Pskowski

The state of Texas will infuse more cash into a program for plugging inactive oil and gas wells in 2026 and 2027, as the average cost of sealing each well has rapidly increased.

here today, more tomorrow

We’ve launched briefing.center with a focus on the press and media.

And we’ve added Citizen Cartwright, a daily quick-read news summary by veteran Washington journalist Linda Cartwright. We’ve also created a new voting rights knowledge center for Citizen Cartwright subscribers. (You can sign up for a dedicated morning email at citizencartwright.com.)

You can sign up here for full access to press and media and Citizen Cartwright on briefing.center.

You can use briefing.center as the center of your information management, or just one of your tools. We’re happy to discuss your information needs.