Illinois' Billion-Dollar Blind Spot

How Flawed Laws And Data Gaps Leave Residents Bearing The Environmental, Health And Financial Costs Of Inactive Oil Wells

This report, developed in collaboration with the Environmental Advocacy Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, reveals how Illinois allows companies to dump cleanup costs onto the state, leaving tens of thousands of wells at high risk of desertion and exposing Illinois to over a billion dollars in potential cleanup liabilities.

Based on extensive public records analysis and Freedom of Information Act responses, this report presents the most comprehensive assessment yet of Illinois's unplugged well crisis, revealing how statutory shortcomings, regulatory flaws, and basic data gaps have set a billion-dollar environmental and fiscal time bomb without adequate oversight or accountability.