Included in the Inflation Reduction Act is a provision aimed at cutting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, but it remains to be seen whether it will have a broad effect on the industry.

The bill would levy a fine on oil and gas producers whose wells emit methane above a certain threshold.

But Kassie Siegel - director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity - said methane emissions are overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the fines will only be as effective as the EPA's oversight requires.

"Polluters have a choice when it comes to the fee," said Siegel. "They can comply with the regulation or they can pay the fee, but they don't have to do both - it's one or the other."

The Inflation Reduction Act, approved by the Senate and House is headed to the president's desk for a signature. It's the biggest clean-energy package in the country's history.

Erandi Treviño, Texas state coordinator with Moms Clean Air Force, said methane in an invisible super-pollutant that is detrimental to the health of those who live near the wells where it's emitted. She said high-tech companies that sell detection equipment could profit from the new climate provisions.

"Because we can't see them, we can't capture them, our ability to even measure the quality of the air at any given time is limited," said Treviño. "I think the more different technologies that come out, I think that's very beneficial."

This month, the EPA conducted flyovers of the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico using infrared cameras to survey oil and gas operations, looking for "super-emitters" of methane gas. The agency says it plans to identify facilities releasing excess emissions and contact those companies.

Siegel said that's a good start, but compliance is only as effective as the EPA's rules.

"I'm not aware of any instance of EPA enforcing its current oil and gas methane rules, and that has to change," said Siegel. "This is a dirty and dangerous industry and oversight's critical."

Despite an agreement to rein in methane emissions, climate action provisions in the new federal legislation require the government to auction millions of acres of oil and gas leases before it can auction acreage for wind and solar farms.

President Joe Biden's bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is expected to bring more than 300 jobs to Wyoming to clean up and plug so-called orphaned oil and gas wells on public lands.

Bob LeResche, board member of the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, is a longtime advocate for restoring Wyoming's iconic landscapes after drilling. He said wells abandoned by oil and gas producers pose a serious hazard for drinking water, agriculture and wildlife habitat.

"They leak methane, they leak volatile organic compounds which are toxic," LeResche explained. "And it just lasts forever. The casings will rust out and whatever is down below will come up and spread over the land. They're very destructive."

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management requires oil and gas operators to post bonds before drilling to ensure cleanup, but LeResche noted bonds can be as low as $10,000 on leases with 20 separate wells. Industry groups and operators have pushed back against efforts to make bond amounts equal to the costs of restoration, arguing the price would reduce exploration, limit outputs and increase dependency on foreign energy.

More than 2,300 well sites have been abandoned by producers in Wyoming, according to a recent Wyofile report. LaResche said most orphans are created when producers sell off leases through layers of limited liability corporations which can declare bankruptcy and walk away, leaving taxpayers on the hook for cleanup.

"There's no reason that the federal government should take on the risk, on behalf of us taxpayers, for somebody who's not going to meet their legal obligation to clean up after themselves," LaResche contended. "Basically, if they can't afford it, then they are not qualified to purchase the lease."

Under the infrastructure legislation, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is expected to receive $25 million for well-site restoration. LeResche acknowledged it will not solve the underlying problem of current Bureau of Land Management policies before drilling begins.

"BLM does not require enough bonds when they issue a drilling permit to guarantee that the wells will be cleaned up by the companies that should be cleaning them up, that are legally obligated to clean them up," LeResche asserted.

A New Mexico group seeking financial compensation for those suffering negative health effects from the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb tests has two more years to make its case.

The federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), now extended two years, provides money to people harmed, either from uranium mining or the atomic tests.

The government currently only recognizes "downwinders" who live in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said if expanded by Congress, it could benefit those who suffer from cancer-related illnesses traced to the radioactive fallout.

"Plutonium that was used in the bomb, overused in the bomb at Trinity -- they didn't know how much was going to be necessary -- has a half-life 24,000 years or 7,000 generations," Cordova pointed out.

The two-year extension of RECA by President Joe Biden last month will allow the consortium more time to seek eligibility for New Mexicans whose lives were affected. Tomorrow, the Downwinders Consortium holds its 13th annual candlelight vigil, and a town hall where some will share their stories.

In 1945, the Department of Energy called the Trinity nuclear test site "remote," but thousands of people lived within 50 miles and were exposed to the first-ever nuclear blast.

Cordova noted it has also been revealed government agencies only conducted tests when the wind was blowing east, to avoid contaminating Las Vegas or Los Angeles. She feels in some ways, New Mexico was targeted, and it was not just a one-time event.

"We've been so overexposed to radiation because of all of this, and New Mexico truly is a sacrifice zone," Cordova asserted. "We have the cradle-to-grave process taking place here. They open up the earth and take out the uranium. We have over 1,000 abandoned uranium mines and mill sites in Navajo, Laguna and Acoma Pueblo."

The Environmental Protection Agency is currently working with federal, state and tribal partners to address abandoned uranium mines and identify the parties responsible for cleanup, including on the Navajo Nation and New Mexico's Grants Mining District.

Starting this month, chemical companies will resume being taxed for cleanup of areas with a lot of leftover toxic waste, also known as Superfund sites. It follows a slowdown in getting sites removed from the federal list.

The tax was reinstated last Friday after it was allowed to expire in the mid-1990s. The recent changes were authorized under the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden.

For a quarter century, said Emily Rogers, Zero Out Toxics campaign advocate for the Public Interest Research Group, the program languished by leaning on taxpayers as opposed to having the industry foot the bill.

"The funds that were used to clean up Superfund sites dropped precipitously," she said, "and with that drop, also the number of sites that were cleaned each year dropped precipitously."

Annual completion of Superfund projects has fallen to single digits in recent years. Iowa has 11 sites on the National Priorities List. Supporters have said the tax will provide $14 billion over the next decade to accelerate this work. Industry groups lobbied against the move, and PIRG has estimated similar opposition amid efforts to reinstate a tax for petroleum companies.

Beyond Iowa, Rogers sai Superfund sites can be found all over the country, especially in marginalized communities. She said one in six Americans lives within three miles of these hazardous sites.

"The waste at these sites can cause some really serious human health effects," she said, "so that's one reason we've been working so hard to get funding reinstated."

Under the growing threat of climate change, PIRG noted that many of these sites are at greater risk of flooding, potentially spreading contamination into nearby communities. The program's funding is used whenever the party at fault for the pollution can't be located or lacks the money to pay for the cleanup.