At the start of 2020, California Resources Corporation (CRC), one of the state’s largest oil and gas producers, was in financial trouble. The firm’s stock price had plunged, and its credit rating was in “junk bond” territory. Then the pandemic struck, roiling international oil markets. A few months later, in July 2020, CRC and nearly two dozen of its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy, citing the “unprecedented market conditions.” The company was nearly $5 billion in debt. The day after the filing, two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, raising concerns that CRC might use its bankruptcy proceedings to avoid cleaning up the thousands of oil wells it owned or operated. Oil and gas wells can leak pollutants into the air and groundwater, including planet-warming methane. The letter warned that California taxpayers could be on the hook for CRC’s cleanup costs if the company went out of business or was able to avoid its environmental obligations.