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west virginia department of environmental protection
west virginia department of environmental protection
west virginia department of environmental protection

Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), enacted in August 2022, plays a pivotal role in addressing the environmental challenges posed by leaking natural gas wells in West Virginia through its Methane Emission Reduction Program (MERP). This legislation provides significant federal funding aimed at reducing methane emissions, through the permanent plugging of certain marginal conventional wells (MCWs).

West Virginia, with its extensive history of oil and gas extraction, has a large number of idle or low-producing wells that pose environmental and safety risks. The IRA allocates substantial resources to states like West Virginia to accelerate the plugging and reclamation of these wells. The funding is crucial for the OOG, enabling us to expand our well-plugging initiatives and engage specialized contractors.

By providing financial support and incentives, the IRA helps West Virginia significantly reduce methane emissions, safeguard groundwater quality, and restore land affected by marginal conventional wells.

You can learn more about the Inflation Reduction Act from the US. EPA.

Resources

Well Nominations and Prioritization

Owners and operators have self-nominated their MCWs for this program; over 850 well nominations were received. The nomination window was open from August 4, 2025 - September 29, 2025. From October 2025 through April 2026, the grant administrator for this project and its contractors sampled the nominated MCWs for methane emissions. Wells were then scored and ranked using the methane emissions results and other factors. The prioritized wells were then analyzed with the Department of Energy's PRIMO optimizer tool to create efficient packages of wells, with geographic proximity being a major efficiency factor considered.

The result of this process is that 591 top-ranked wells have been grouped into 20 projects, as listed in the spreadsheet provided under "Resources," and shown by different colors on the map (each color is used twice). In the coming months, DEP will provide funding through this IRA program for 3rd party well plugging contractors to permanently plug these MCWs, starting with Project #1 and proceeding through consecutively-numbered projects until remaining funds are used.

Prioritized Marginal Conventional Wells (MCWs)

This MERP project map shows icons where prioritized MCWs are located within West Virginia in the context of other states, with county boundaries depicted. The icons are in 20 different groups, ranging from southwestern WV through northeastern WV, not including the northern or eastern panhandles. Barbour county has 10 wells in the project, Boone has 29, Braxton has 4, Cabell has 65, Calhoun and Clay each have 9, Doddridge has 34, Fayette has 6, Gilmer has 1, Harrison has 49, Kanawha has 57, Lewis has 16, Lincoln has 21, Logan has 22, McDowell has 8, Marion has 9, Marshall has 6, Mason has 1, Mingo has 17, Monongalia has 4, Nicholas has 11, Pleasants has 12, Preston has 8, Putnam has 9, Raleigh has 21, Randolph has 4, Ritchie has 22, Roane has 23, Tucker has 2, Tyler has 11, Upshur has 31, Wayne has 16, Wetzel has 25, Wirt has 1 and Wyoming has 12.

The spreadsheet under Resources lists the breakdown by Project number.

MERP Project Summary

Project Number of Wells Impact Score [0-100] Efficiency Score [0-100] Estimated Project Cost
1 35 17.11 74.04 $1,738,254.00
2 40 16.87 85.53 $1,521,419.00
3 21 16.82 83.16 $1,436,010.00
4 38 16.81 80.59 $1,280,000.00
5 28 16.49 71.88 $1,240,869.00
6 26 16.47 80.55 $1,272,016.00
7 20 15.25 48.65 $1,272,016.00
8 38 14.92 63.32 $1,456,223.00
9 24 14.90 76.76 $1,456,223.00
10 16 14.80 80.93 $979,897.00
11 22 14.41 74.81 $1,609,169.00
12 38 14.22 56.30 $2,256,000.00
13 39 13.90 66.16 $2,186,242.00
14 44 13.90 73.52 $2,654,907.00
15 42 13.69 41.25 $2,404,337.00
16 18 13.54 75.89 $1,121,974.00
17 22 13.53 73.79 $1,283,318.00
18 38 12.51 70.36 $1,657,740.00
19 22 11.70 74.76 $920,192.00
20 20 11.14 75.46 $946,659.00
Total: 591 Total Projected Cost: $32,972,226.00

MERP Project Map

MERP Project Map
Enlarge Map

Resources

Contact

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Administrator:

Phone: (864) 626-0865
Email: WVMERP@northwindgrp.com

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Imminent Danger: 911
Official Emergency Spill Report
1-800-642-3074
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1-304-926-0499

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