Eliminate Fees To Access Public Oil and Gas Well Records
Final signature count: 12,974
12,974 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Rainforest Site
Info on potentially dangerous abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania is being held behind exorbitant fees. Take a stand!
Since 1859, more than 325,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled throughout the state of Pennsylvania, and only abut 125,000 of them are currently tracked1.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources contracts with a private corporation to put oil & gas well records on its cloud via a database called EDWIN2. The database and all of the work to populate it is funded with state tax dollars3.
The data in the EDWIN system are important to people who are tracking issues related to oil and gas development. However, anyone who wants this information is forced to travel to a DCNR office in Pittsburgh or Middletown or submit requests to receive individual records, else pay $5,500 dollars to access public information1.
Pennsylvanians should not have to pay $5,000 to subscribe to DCNR’s EDWIN database nor an additional $500 annual maintenance fee to access oil and gas records that have such a large environmental impact when their taxpayer dollars already went into creating and supporting the database4.
One Pennsylvanian, Laurie Barr, has tracked hundreds of thousands of orphaned and abandoned wells throughout the state5. These wells have never been plugged and are yet leaking dangerous methane. In fact, some of the wells are known as “super-emitters,” releasing 100 to 1,000 times more methane than a normal operational well6.
Like anyone else who wants to know the status of these wells, whether for their family’s health and safety or that of the public, Barr is forced to spend her own money on gas, tolls, and hotels to make the 5 hour trip to Pittsburgh in order to access the data she should be able to access for free online. This information should be free to any American taxpayer7.
It is both unjust and unAmerican to limit the public’s access to public information.
Sign the petition and Help us tell the Pennsylvania DCNR to eliminate the exorbitant fees on oil and gas records and restore access to critical public information!