The Costly Challenge of California's Shift to Clean Energy.

A new report by Carbon Tracker Initiative estimates that it will cost at least $13.2 billion to clean up California's onshore oil and gas wells, dismantle surface infrastructure, and decontaminate polluted drill sites. Adding in factors like inflation rates and the price of decommissioning miles of pipeline could bring the total cleanup bill to $21.5 billion, which vastly exceeds all the industry's future profits in the state. Taxpayers will likely have to cover much of the difference to ensure wells are plugged and not left to leak brine, toxic chemicals, and climate-warming methane.