Private Equity-Backed Oil and Gas Drillers Saddle Taxpayers With Costly Cleanup Risk

Further legislation is needed to ensure that fossil fuel companies cannot use bankruptcy to ditch their responsibility to clean up oil and gas wells. 

"If these companies declare bankruptcy and abandon these oil and gas wells, the public faces major costs, and buyout firms escape with their profit and zero consequences," said Alan Zibel, an oil and gas researcher with Public Citizen who co-authored the report. "Private equity buyout firms have a history of buying up businesses in declining industries, extracting profits and then filing for bankruptcy once the assets the company owns become worthless. That means federal and state officials must be on high alert as these firms pick up and consolidate oil and gas assets discarded by oil and gas giants."…https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/private-equity-backed-oil-and-gas-drillers-saddle-taxpayers-with-costly-cleanup-risk