The Biden administration on Monday announced it will send $1.15 billion to states to plug thousands of orphan oil and gas wells that emit methane, a potent climate-changing greenhouse gas.

Natural gas is composed mainly of methane, which accounts for about 10% of U.S. global greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly 30% of methane emissions in the United States comes from the oil and gas sector.

Methane can be found in the following: 84 times more potent than carbon It doesn’t stay in the atmosphere for as long before it is destroyed, which makes it an important target to help reduce global warming faster while also reducing other greenhouse gasses.

President provides the funding for plugging oil and gas wells Joe Biden‘s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which allocated a total of $4.7 billion to form a new federal program to address the thousands of wells abandoned across the country.

Deb Haaland (Interior Secretary) stated in a statement, that the funding allows the government to confront “legacy pollution” and other environmental injustices which have long been affecting underrepresented communities.

Haaland stated that “we must act quickly to address more than 100 thousand orphaned wells throughout the country” and left no community unaffected. This is good news for America’s workers, our environment, and the health of our communities. 

This money will be distributed to 26 states which submitted notices of intention to the Department of Interior in the last year. These include more than $100 million for Pennsylvania and Texas. Roughly 9 million people live within a mile of an abandoned oil and gas well, some of which emit harmful gases that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color in the U.S.

Mahyar Sorour is the Sierra Club’s deputy legislative director. “Addressing existing wells are an important step.” But, unless bonding reform is implemented that forces oil and gas companies upfront to pay these costs, industry will leave toxic wells in public lands. Then taxpayers will have to foot the bill for cleaning them up.

Bethany Williams, spokeswoman of the American Petroleum Institute said, “We appreciate the administration’s attempts to address orphaned wells.” Williams is the largest trade organization in the oil-and gas industry. API released last year an industry standard that addressed the closing and remediation wells.

The White House last year helped move forward the Global Methane Pledge, a pact to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade. The pledge has been accepted by over 100 countries including 15 of 30 top methane emitters around the globe, according to White House.

White House also discussed efforts to demand that pipeline operators reduce methane leaked, carry out research to limit methane from beef, dairy, and to create an interagency work group to coordinate measurement, monitoring, reporting and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions.