West Virginia unveiled the Mountain State Plugging Fund on Thursday to retire roughly 20,000 old oil and gas wells over the coming decades. The privately financed fund aims to prevent groundwater contamination and methane leaks at no taxpayer cost.
Diversified Energy will contribute $70 million over 20 years, projected to grow to $650 million through returns. The company agreed to retire at least 1,500 wells initially, then 250 annually. Costs range from $25,000 to over $50,000 per well.See well decommissioning practices training.
Officials believe this is the first business-funded cleanup fund of its kind. Millions of abandoned wells nationwide leak methane and pollutants, with thousands orphaned by defunct companies.
Gulf of America turning into the star of US oil growth
Slowing onshore production, technological advancements and favorable...
Slowing onshore production, technological advancements and favorable policies are putting offshore drilling at the forefront of US oil production growth this year and next, analysts and industry leaders say. Chevron expects its Gulf of America output to increase by 50% in 2026 from two years earlier, while Talos Energy touts break-even prices as low as $35 per barrel. Companies are deploying next-generation high-pressure drilling systems that could unlock up to 5 billion barrels of previously unreachable crude.
Nvidia-backed startup Poolside and cloud-infrastructure provider CoreWeave...
Nvidia-backed startup Poolside and cloud-infrastructure provider CoreWeave are teaming up to build a 500-acre AI data-center campus in West Texas that will generate its own power using nearby natural gas from the Permian Basin. The $16 billion Horizon project is designed to provide up to two gigawatts of computing capacity, with initial operations expected in early 2027.
Following what he described as a “lengthy” and “very productive”...
Following what he described as a “lengthy” and “very productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin, President Trump said he plans to meet with the Russian leader soon in Budapest to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The phone call came ahead of today’s meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, where the two are expected to discuss sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. The missiles would allow Ukraine to reach much farther into Russia, including to Moscow, which experts say could force Putin to negotiate. Trump said Putin “didn’t like that idea” when he brought it up during their phone call.
Nestlé is cutting 16,000 jobs as part of a turnaround effort....
Nestlé is cutting 16,000 jobs as part of a turnaround effort. The biggest food company in the world is slashing the roles to “simplify our organization” and “automate our processes,” CEO Philipp Navratil wrote in a LinkedIn post. The maker of everything from Kit Kat candy bars to Nespresso coffee pods, Nestlé has faced investor pressure over falling demand in China and internal drama, including the ouster of its previous CEO, Laurent Freixe, over an undisclosed romantic relationship with an employee. Nestle’s stock spiked more than 9% yesterday following the news of the layoffs.
John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security advisor who later became one of his critics, was indicted by the Justice Department yesterday over his handling of classified documents.
The US Chamber of Commerce is suing the Trump administration over its $100,000 fees for H-1B visas, becoming one of the few business groups to challenge the White House in court.
ICE agents in Chicago are required to wear body cameras, a federal judge ordered yesterday.
FIFA said it has sold more than 1 million tickets to the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Electronic Arts sold more than 7 million copies of Battlefield 6 in the first three days of release—the most ever for the first-person shooter franchise.
MrBeast, the YouTube kingpin best known for large-scale stunts like stranding his friends at sea for a week, is expanding into financial services, Business Insider reported.
