How the Voluntary Carbon Market Can Fund Orphan Well Remediation

Payne Institute Energy Finance Lab Director Brad Handler writes about how there are an estimated 1 million wells in the U.S., most drilled in a pre-regulatory era, that are orphaned and have either never been plugged or not to current standards that also emit collectively a lot of methane.  States are left to plug and handle any necessary remediation. Born out of this burden is the idea to use the Voluntary Carbon Markets, or VCM, to raise funds to plug these wells.  November 7, 2025.