the united states is currently producing more oil than anywhere in history. and doing so, despite its pledge to reduce emissions, being pumped right here from deep underground and sent across the country and around the world war. even though they statements may differ and we will drill baby drill. we're going to move more rapidly to renewable energy to wind and solar, all re sent us governments have pursued policies of drilling more oil proponent states, good business that it creates a lot of jobs and keeps living costs low for tax parents. and that it's important for securing us energy independence. i'm here to see what's going on at the center of it all and to find out whether those claims are true. and what i found a whole lot of pickup trucks, a situation more complicated than i'd ever imagined. oh look. yeah. i'm kinda scared of these things. and a quiet problem that some claim could bankrupt the industry the. it was unseasonably

hot on the drive to west texas, close to the new mexico border, random oil wells and using a band and data to landscape. i look there's some right there. in august of 2020 for texas producer and $5000000.00 barrels of oil per day about the production capacity of canada. the nearly half the oil produced by the entire country comes from this state. so oil ripples throughout the entire economy here where we're headed, the university of texas over millions of acres of land and the more boilers pond to the board as to which the dominant museums are from the state. also live from well money that's including the petroleum museum in the city of midland, part of quail country. everything here sits on top of the permian basin, an oil field that stretches from west texas to new mexico. there's a bunch of old oil equipment here because texas has been at the center of the us

oil booms for decades. and all of these behind me are old drilling rigs. they date back to the 1920s, the 1st step and while extraction drilling a well, then come the top there. sometimes we can go look at over there actually. so when they 1st an oil, it basically explodes out of the ground due to changes and pressure. but after a while, it doesn't really explode so much anymore and you have to actually pump these are the ponds that do exactly that. but it's not a simple process to hear more about it. we spoke to brian grant, the executive director, the oil is actually trapped with in layers of rocks that are in these different layers strata. so we have to not only drill but then we have to crack the rock. people have been cracking the rock to get that oil for more than a century, mostly with explosives. and after that, they're going to inject the sand that will hold the fractures, open this sand along with water and chemicals is

a key component of modern fracking. another is horizontally drilled wells, which are more productive than vertical. once since rocking took off, the us has increased production by nearly 3 folds. it's been a part of every well junior field engineer hollis eubanks, has worked on how this has worked in oil and gas for nearly a decade and directly in oil extraction for the last 5 years. we will send in a we called a gun and is just an explosive to barrow and will perforate polls. so you do the, you do the explosion. yes. most because of the explosion, the museum house took us around to some work sites near the city. why did you start working in the oil and gas? the big bold towards it was it's money. it's a lot of money. i know guys are going to have a high school diploma that makes 6 figures a year. i was tar to go back to our normal life just because it's it's one of those things that well, once it gets in your blood, it's kind of addict. if it's

a lot of money for the industry to this major oil and gas find is that its 2nd highest points and this creation? chevron c. o. mike were salary rose 12 percent and one year to $26500000.00 in 2023. some of this money does stay in texas in terms of well, the university of texas is 2nd only to harvard, and the industry paid the state over $26000000000.00 in taxes and 2023 of the money has went up. but as far as if it was like a little bit harder now, is that everything else is there's are so there's more to the story than the oil boom, creating many good jobs. this route here is going to be a back to the job site active job site, okay. maintenance side of things. these guys work in rain, snow. he go everything, there's a lot of sacrifice with it. i think a lot of people are hesitant to do that. recently,

there have been massive layoffs in the industry, some of which have been triggered by fracking induced over supply. on top of that, new technology means fewer workers and wells are necessary to keep up production. we reached out to companies around midland to ask what this means for future job creation, but never heard back how it says more people are leaving than he's ever seen. that means less strict load or we just go back home and work at whatever they can find. are a lot of guys, i know i've left him upright grains now for wind turbines and solar. he's considering switching as well because those jobs offer more time at home. nationwide renewable energy jobs are growing twice as fast as the rest of the energy sector. and the us economy, the, another more complicated claims that more drilling will mean us energy independence for rock crude oil to be used. it's often turn into petroleum products like

gasoline. this is done and refineries around the country, many of which are in texas. but most us are find these are built before the fracking boom, which turns out a different type of oil. the last full capacity refinery in the us was built in 1977. this means a lot of facts, crude oil as export it mostly to europe in china. the us been in parts different oil, mostly from canada. so the oil boom has decreased imports slightly, but the system isn't set up for the us to win itself off imports entirely. and more drilling doesn't directly equal lower prices. as proponents claim, even though it does play a role, it's just one piece of a complicated global puzzle. more over companies want the price of oil to be high. that way they can offer competitive salaries, investing new infrastructure and theoretically plug old wells. that's just as important as drilling because you have to when you're done with something, you've got to make sure that it's not going to come back and puts you in the future,

which has happened to a lot of places around here. those unplugged wells are quietly causing massive damage and could seriously threaten oil companies. bottom line, they can leach chemicals into the ground water and methane to the air, methane emissions from only around a 1000 you as well as they've been study. but some individual wells have been found to him, it is much methane is $4000.00 cars and one year and companies are leaving tax payers to deal with the problem. we're headed outside midland to some branches that have a band and wells on their properties and they're causing big problems for the people who live there. hi, amanda. nice to meet you. a nice to meet you. like many in the state. lor briggs has deep ties to the oil industry. my grand power for in co ambled s o x on my dad worked for x on but partially due to the fracking them. she's living with taking time bombs this. well, here was one of the old or, and wells,

the blue august, 1st blue like it blew up blue blue produce water everywhere and produce water is the waste water that slept over after they trill, an oil and gas? well, so we don't even know what's in it. it's in the on the 3rd trains sake, or what they frack with is what they're injecting under ground that's causing these old wells to make trouble. the produced water got on laura's animals and when she touched them, it felt like drain cleaner on her skin. other than causing these old well to blow, those waste water injections can also cause earthquakes. another well and her property hasn't blown yet. sometimes the pressure is really bad and sometimes it's really low. my neighbors across the river have some plugged wells and hits and they say they weep. like sometimes they're wet around it and sometimes they're not. now mr. guys many wells or enroll areas which makes them easier to ignore. laura has to wait for this well to blow before the railroad commission,

which oversees oil and gas and texas will plug it hoc. dunlap is one person drawing attention to this issue. to fix this problem, matic wells for a living and noticed how big the problem with a band and wells really was. so this is a chevron. well, that was plugged in 2010 chevron we've. we've escalated it run out about a month ago. so what you see, here's the remnants of, of the, well, it's supposed to be plug is you can see there's crude oil leak and outside of it there's a google lab crude. it's got, it's got gas, it, it, we tend to do the oil. it's also going to produce water in it. 2 years ago we started digging it wells. in the 1st 7 we dug up. we're leaking, they were like this, all of them. the 1st 7 that we did while he sits in, we dug up on this ranch. a 100 and i would say 95 of them are leaking and the other 5,

i'm not for certain that they're not there 8375. unplugged wells on the official texas list and an estimated 783000 inactive wells in the state. that doesn't include improperly plugged wells like this one. properly closing them is going to be expensive. so you're looking at several and having to pay a half a $110000000.00 for every well like this for every well sure. there are state and federal cleanup programs, but they don't have nearly enough money. the goal, the suspect that the majority of the whales that had already been plug are going to have to be revisited. at some point. i mean, as like trillions of dollars that you can, you can banker up and oil company flow, serious gardeners,

also publicizing the issue. she and hawker planning to take short run to court over these abandoned wells. i tell you, it was kind of a 12 step program that are like the 1st step is admitting that there's a problem. if you were to ask anyone behind closed doors off the record, everyone would admit that this is a problem. but what will they say on the record? we've plugged norway. 8 roles under the or from wells program and we beat our legislative goals and we're great rock go team. but we've dug up what 4 of those, and they're all the kids between. that'd be point wells like bees and the damage done. sarah, things that companies have too many liabilities for future revenue to cover. still, she and hawk aren't against the industry. cut my wrist, i'm gonna bleed google. you know i've got a daughter that wants to come up this. i'm want we're not auntie over just at the half as you feel the same way. yeah, absolutely. 100 percent. i was like you took the words out of my mouth. there's obviously like a lot of wells that are already in operation and they're producing oil. yeah. and

like, is there anything that people can do with those wells to not have this situation in the future? yeah, you properly a band and then when you stop using them and when they start to exhibit signs of mechanical integrity failures, you quickly address them. and if you can't fix them, you abandon the well and you bury it and you pay for the funeral. do you think that's happening now? sharon hawk even found a spot on the property with oil and the groundwater. we're subsidizing the clean up the money that the industry pays and, and taxes then gets turned around and used to clean up their mass. and hawks expression is like wiping your but with a hula hoops can just keep coming around. a major stated reason behind me more drilling is that it keeps costs low for tax payers. but the hidden costs of plugging old wells and cleaning up toxic chemicals are not being calculated in and with continued reliance on oil in parts the

industry claim that energy independence doesn't match with reality. a study by the oil rich university of texas done that the state could get to net 0 emissions by 2015 and the economy would actually grow. that's partially because of the strong growth in jobs and renewables. texas is known for its energy, and oil and gas are deeply connected to people in the state. but despite the promises made, the industry isn't living up to its claims. the if you'd like to fail, let us know if you did it. let us know why either way, don't forget to subscribe. we have new videos every friday. the .