Research in action to end oil and gas

The True Costs project is all about research in action. It looks for important, untold stories in data and narratives around the failing oil and gas industry to accelerate the industry's demise and protect taxpayers, the environment, and state governments.

What does this action look like in practice?

This foundational research inspires investigative journalism that breaks open shocking stories about just how bad the oil and gas industry really is. Media across the country are using True Costs data to highlight issues from local to global including the LA Times, Bloomberg and the podcast Drilled. Environmental organizations like The Carbon Tracker Initiative and the FracTracker Alliance are also digging deeper into this issue with the support of True Cost research.

It’s not just about targeting the bad guys. This project is also supporting state attorney generals' offices with ground-breaking data on the true costs states could face in this new era of oil and gas bankruptcy. Addressing these risks as soon as possible will save states and taxpayers billions of dollars--not to mention the potential for irreversible damage to the environment and impacted communities--as oil and gas liabilities become clearer during this period of decline.

What’s the new narrative coming out of this project?

New research paints a grim picture of the oil and gas industry today.

Let’s start with the biggest number: it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to safely retire existing oil and gas wells in the United States, including the hundreds of thousands of wells that already sit idle (often dangerous to their surrounding communities). 

There’s no money set aside to pay for this, so it will become states’ responsibility to clean up anything the industry leaves behind. In fact, retirement of these millions of wells will likely fall to taxpayers. Knowing this, especially as companies continue to dig wells that they have no intention of safely closing themselves, makes current oil and gas regulations impossible to continue. 

We need to make the oil and gas industry pay for their mess, while they still can. At the very least, we need to stop the digging of new wells that will only contribute to this issue in the future.