Cleaning oilfield pollution in West Texas is costly and complicated – and bankruptcy laws let oil companies off the hook, sticking taxpayers with the bill – according to reporting by Martha Pskowski for Inside Climate News. With support from the Fund, Pskowski spent six months investigating contamination and cleanup efforts on property that the city of Midland, Texas, bought to provide long-term water security. Contamination that the city identified in 2003 is still being remediated, and because the oil company responsible for polluting it went bankrupt, the city is picking up the tab. The story was republished in media outlets across Texas.
Bankruptcy laws shift burden of cleaning up environmental contamination from oil companies to taxpayers, grantee finds
