Things like this always strike me as the biggest example of why regulation is critical, and those fighting against is are wrong.
If there was no regulations and no government body in charge of these things, the public in the area would be responsible for fixing these orphan wells or risk contamination and dying off, while the company owning them is likely dissolved and gone.
Also side note, but this
"Instead of having these really long-term plans, the industry should be using periods of high prices to clean up and prepare for downturns. And instead they are still sort of assuming that good times will last forever, and planning to have long, long periods of good oil and gas prices," said Yewchuk.
Sums up the mentality of the oilsands pretty well