In Slumping Energy States, Plugging Abandoned Wells Could Provide an Economic Boost

Route Fifty: It's rare for Tom Brooks to say no to work. Which is why, in the middle of a pandemic and a worldwide slump in oil prices, Brooks mustered up a crew to plug a 42-year-old oil well for the state of North Dakota.

“We fought our way through the slow times and didn't shut the doors,” Brooks said one afternoon this summer as he drove his pickup toward the well in question, tucked amid tan buttes in the scenic grasslands near the Montana state line. “We didn't plan it that way. We were just too stupid to quit.”

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