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Can't the laws be modified to require whomever mined the mine is responsible for the cleanup? That way if they hire a fly by night company they are still on the
by willcipriano 5y ago
Can't the laws be modified to require whomever mined the mine is responsible for the cleanup? That way if they hire a fly by night company they are still on the hook. Seems like a loophole that was created on purpose.
- allturtles 5y agoI think it would still be hard to write the regulation in a way that couldn't be gamed (e.g. the big, well-capitalized companies lending money to fly-by-night operators to dig wells for them). It would probably be easier for the government to just levy a tax on all well-owners for every year the well remains uncapped and then use that revenue to pay for capping the well themselves. This would make it impossible to wiggle out of paying and discourage dragging out the use of a well that's leaking methane but producing a tiny amount of gas for many years.
- jnwatson 5y agoThe government could force the driller to escrow the money to cap the well.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoThese are called surety bonds.
- Tanjreeve 5y agoThis is called a negative externality and it's what political economists spend a lot of their time fighting about. The bit of "how to determine who pays" is very complex/impossible when you're talking about something like air pollution.