By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The nation’s largest gas and oil well owner has relied on a business model that energy experts and West Virginia landowners say puts the state at high risk of having to close wells that damage the state’s environmental health. And Diversified has closed wells at a pace that will take until late into the 24th century to complete in Appalachia.
Now Gov. Patrick Morrisey is heralding a new agreement his administration has reached with that owner to seal, or plug, the wells that experts say is a sweetheart deal for the company — not the state.
“It’s basically an agreement by West Virginia to accept pennies on the dollar in terms of financial assurances,” Peter Morgan, legal and policy director at the Center for Asset Retirement Accountability, a fossil fuel asset retirement-focused group, told the Gazette-Mail.