Louisiana has roughly 29,000 producing oil and gas wells around the state, according to the Department of Natural Resources. But what happens to those wells when they stop producing? Or when a company goes bankrupt and owners just walk away? 

In Louisiana, there are over 16,000 inactive wells and 4,600 are considered  “orphaned,” meaning they have been abandoned or turned over to the state. These wells could be leaking methane — a dangerous greenhouse gas. 

A new $3 million grant from the Department of Natural Resources is helping researchers at Louisiana State University  find these wells, estimate the costs to plug them and measure their flow of methane. 

Three members of LSU’s research team discuss their efforts — Ipsita Gupta, associate professor of petroleum engineering, Kanchan Maiti, chair of the school’s oceanography and coastal sciences department, and Greg Upton, associate professor of research at LSU’s Center for Energy Studies. 

After 12 years of collaboration, two of New Orleans premiere arts organizations ended their partnership last month. 

The relationship between New Orleans Museum of Art and the NOLA Project theatre group came to an abrupt halt over the production of a play. But there are two sides to the story. 

Verite reporter Josie Abugov explains how intense conversations on racial reckoning may have led the groups to splinter.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. Our assistant producer is Aubry Procell and our engineer is Garrett Pittman. 

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