Fossil fuel infrastructure has important land-use impacts within the US, including environmental consequences of affected land persisting beyond the lifespan of wells. We estimated ecoregion-specific, 50-year present value net benefits of restoring lands associated with non-producing wells in the conterminous US based on select ecosystem services: agricultural sales and carbon sequestration. We identified over 430,000 restorable wells occupying over 800,000 hectares of land. The present value of ecosystem services benefits was 21 billion (USD 2018) while restoration costs were 7 billion. Deciduous forests, grasslands, and Mediterranean ecoregions had large net benefits, while arid and semi-arid regions were often negative. Focusing on select ecoregions of the US would provide higher returns on investment in the form of environmental and economic benefits. Though our results suggest an ecoregional hierarchy, restoration of all abandoned fossil fuel lands will have benefits at local, regional, and national scales, including food security, protection of biodiversity, and restoration-related job opportunities.

Data were collected from an industry database (Enverus.com), satellite images, USDA statistics, and a variety of peer-reviewed papers. The authors developed the formulas and performed the calculations on Excel.

Equations to generate data are in published paper. Questions about the data can be directed to M.D. Moran