Decommissioning in place

I now have a new phrase for describing my system of leaving clothes on the floor until laundry day. 

The GAO found that the offshore oil and gas industry has left behind about 18,000 miles of inactive pipeline in the Gulf since the 1960s. While federal rules require removal of decommissioned pipelines except in special cases, the GAO found that 97% of pipelines have been allowed to stay on the seafloor.

“Such a high rate of approval indicates that this is not an exception ... but rather that decommissioning-in-place has been the norm for decades,” the report said.

This, by the way, is exactly what a "market driven" transition to a greener economy is going to look like. Abandoned, rotting infrastructure leaking poisons into the water with no one left to take any responsibility.  Ideally the alternative is a mitigation initiative funded by something like a federal Green New Deal bill. But that ain't happening anytime soon. 

Maybe we can get something written into the Fossil Fuel Sanctuary State Act that politely asks the protected class to pick up after itself every now and again.