Fossil fuel infrastructure has important land-use impacts within the United States, including
the environmental consequences of affected land that persists beyond the lifespan of wells.
Here, we estimate the ecoregion-specific fifty-year present-value net benefits of restoring
lands that are associated with non-producing wells in the conterminous United States on the
basis of select ecosystem services—agricultural sales and carbon sequestration. We identify
more than 430,000 restorable wells that occupy more than 800,000 ha of land. The present …