Stocks fell broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Tuesday, extending a slump for the major indexes as investors continue to worry about the state of the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. More than 85% of stocks in the benchmark index fell in the weak opening following a long weekend for the Independence Day holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 562 points, or 1.8%, to 30,532 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%.

Small-company stocks also fell. The Russell 2000 shed 1.2%.

Energy companies had some of the biggest losses as U.S. oil prices fell 8.1%. Exxon Mobil shed 4%.

Banks also fell significantly, along with bond yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set mortgage rates, fell to 2.79% from 2.90% late Friday. JPMorgan Chase fell 2.3%.

European markets were also lower.

Stocks remain in a slump that pulled the S&P 500 into a bear market last month, meaning an extended decline of 20% or more from a recent peak. The market's performance in the first half of 2022 was the worst since the first six months of 1970.

Inflation has been squeezing businesses and consumers throughout the year, but tightened its grip after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The invasion sent oil prices higher globally and sent gasoline prices in the U.S. to record highs. That prompted a pullback in spending from consumers struggling with higher prices on everything from food to clothing.

Lockdowns in China from rising COVID-19 cases have also made supply chain problems worse.

Central banks have been raising interest rates in an attempt to temper inflation. The Federal Reserve has been aggressive in its shift from historically low-interest rates at the height of the pandemic to unusually big rate increases. But, that has raised concerns that the central bank could go too far in raising rates and hitting the brakes too hard on economic growth, which could bring on a recession.

Wall Street has been closely watching the latest economic updates for more clues on how inflation is impacting the economy and whether that could shift the Fed's position on rate hikes. Wall Street will get a closer look at the employment market on Friday when the government releases employment data for June.

Investors are also looking ahead to the next round of corporate earnings for a clearer picture of inflation's impact. Several big companies recently warned that their financial results are being squeezed by inflation, including spice and seasonings maker McCormick.

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OREGON, Ohio — An Ohio oil refinery was shut down Wednesday after two people died in the massive fire on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for British Petroleum told the Associated Press that the fire occurred at its Husky Toledo Refinery in the city of Oregon, just outside Toledo.

According to the news outlet, the company said that the two workers were initially injured in the blaze but later succumbed to their injuries.

In a video provided to CNN, Ryan Rohm told the news outlet that he began noticing black smoke rise from the refinery around 7 p.m., adding an explosion also shook the ground and houses nearby.

During a Wednesday night speech on the House of Representatives floor, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur offered her condolences to the families of Ben and Max Morrissey, the two men who died in the fire.

"Madam Speaker, I rise today with deep sadness to pay tribute to two highly skilled U.S. steelworkers, brothers Ben and Max Morrissey, who tragically lost their lives at the British Petroleum refinery in my hometown," Kaptur said as she addressed lawmakers. "Yesterday, while on the job at the BP-Husky plant in Oregon, Ohio, their lives were cut short in a horrific explosion. Responsible citizens, husbands and fathers who performed America’s essential work that drives progress and our American way of life forward."

The company spokesperson said the fire was extinguished around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday and the refinery was "safely shut down," NBC News reported.

The cause of the fire has not been released, the Associated Press reported.

Korean automaker Kia is issuing another recall due to a possible fire risk.

This time, the recall affects 70,000 Sorento and Sportage SUV models from 2016 to 2023.

On its website, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Kia is recommending that owners park their vehicles outside and away from structures because debris and moisture might get into a tow hitch harness module printed circuit board and cause a short, resulting in a fire.

The NHTSA said that the tow hitch harnesses might have been installed before they were sold or bought as an accessory through a Kia dealership.

The recall focuses the 2021-23 Sorento Hybrid model, the 2022-23 Sorento Plug-in Hybrid, and the 2017-2022 Sportage, the NHTSA said.

According to the NHTSA, three fires were confirmed, but no fatalities, injuries, or crashes were reported.

This recall expands on one Kia issued in August that affected more than 36,000 Kia Telluride models due to a similar issue. That recall also affected 245,000 Hyundai Palisade SUV models.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on Nov. 14, the agency said.

The automaker has dealt with multiple fire-related recalls in recent years, involving brakes, and engines.

Prices at the pump continue to skyrocket and break records in some cities across the country. Experts say several factors are to blame, including the rising tensions in Russia and Ukraine.

“I think these prices are ridiculous,” said Joel Gordillo while getting gas Tuesday, paying more than $5 a gallon for premium gas. “I mean, look at this, this is too much.”

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.53 on Tuesday.

At a gas station in San Diego, a gallon of regular was $4.99 Tuesday; all other options were more than $5.

“I’m just waiting for them to drop down, hopefully soon; the struggle is real, you know, a lot of people can’t pay these gas prices right now,” said Ernesto Tapia, who was gassing up his car.

Unfortunately, some experts don’t think the prices will be going down any time soon.

“February of last year, oil was at about $61 a barrel,” said Marie Montgomery, a spokesperson for AAA of Southern California. She said that number was $96 a barrel on Tuesday. She said since Friday, wholesale gas prices in Southern California have spiked.

Montgomery said three major factors have contributed to the increase in gas prices, one of the most significant- rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

“For California specifically, we don’t get any oil or gasoline from Russia, but of course, the tensions are rising oil prices worldwide, and we have to pay those oil prices, so that’s the main issue we’re seeing,” said Montgomery.

Russia is one of the world’s leading oil producers, and if leaders choose to withhold that oil, we’ll likely continue to feel it at the pump.

Montgomery says other reasons we’re seeing high prices are inflation on a national and state level and the state’s early switch to a summer blend of gasoline, which is more expensive to produce than the winter blend.

For now, there appears to be no end in sight, but Montgomery said there are things to consider when trying to save money at the pump.

“It’s more important now than ever to aggressively shop around for the cheapest prices. You can still find many stations out there that are competitive, not great prices, but well below the average,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery said the AAA mobile app will show users the lowest gas prices nearby. “Virtually shop around; make sure you’re not paying that average price,” she said.

This story was first reported by Mimi Elkalla at KGTV in San Diego, California.

SHELBY, Mt. — A veteran of the oil industry, Curtis Shuck is on a new path these days: cleaning up the mess left behind by orphaned wells.

"I was raised in a family where we had a principle of leave it better than the way you found it, and so I just, I couldn't just fathom that this was left behind and that people thought that it was okay," he said.

Orphaned wells are oil or natural gas wells that have been abandoned by companies for one reason or another. Like a straw stuck into a juice box, these wells have been left open, many for decades, and are leaking toxins, like methane gas, into the environment.

"Many of these have no control at the surface. You see it’s literally just an open hole at the surface," he said, showing an orphaned well from the 1920's in a field outside of Shelby, Montana.

This is why he started the Well Done foundation, a nonprofit that uses donations to find, measure, report and plug up orphaned wells. It's a process that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"It was always everybody's dirty little secret. Nobody wanted to talk about it because it was a black eye on the industry, a black eye on the regulatory agencies," said Shuck.

But now, the problem of orphaned wells is becoming too big to be ignored. It’s hard to get exact numbers because the previous owners of the wells are defunct, but the environmental protection agency estimates there are at least 2.1 million wells across the united states.

From California to New York, at least half of the states in America have clusters of abandoned wells.

"Orphan Wells themselves are somewhere between a 10th of a percent and a third of a percent of the U.S. climate footprint," said Adam Peltz, senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Funs.

He said that along with being a leaker of methane gas, orphaned wells are also tied to ground water contamination and air toxins.

"That potentially has public health ramifications impacts on property values, which have impacts downstream on like school funding and stuff like that," he said.

The infrastructure bill that’s been made law has set aside $250 million to plug wells. Peltz says the money will be able to plug 80-100,000 wells. It’s a dent but he believes more needs to be done.

"We need to figure out how to adjust policies so that those wells can be plugged in a timely fashion at the end of their lives," said Peltz.

Meanwhile, Curtis and Well Done have been in communication with different states about best practices to plug orphaned wells, hopefully inspiring others to join the effort to put a cap on this issue.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a measure to ban new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones.

The measure would shut down oil and gas fields in the city after a decade of complaints from residents about negative health impacts including nosebleeds, wheezing and coughing. Residents of the city blamed air pollution on the sites.

Activists say that Black and Latino residents of the city are the most affected by pollution from the sites.

The Los Angeles City Council voted on Wednesday for a plan that would phase out new wells over a period of five years. As CNBC reported, over half a million Los Angeles residents live within a quarter-mile of an active oil and gas well, which can release various pollutants including benzene and hydrogen sulfide.

Phaseouts like these are part of what is being seen as a statewide movement in California to move away from fossil fuel production to meet ambitious, but possible climate goals. There's also a strong public health motivation to the movement.

As the Associated Press reported, California's oil and gas regulator proposed in October to ban new oil and gas wells that lie within 3,200 feet of schools, homes, and hospitals.

Existing wells could potentially be subject to new pollution controls.

TOOLE COUNTY, Mont. – About 30 miles south of the Canadian border, Well Done Foundation chairman Curtis Shuck meets his crew at an old oil well.

Well Done Foundation is a nonprofit that was formed specifically for identifying and plugging abandoned oil and gas wells.

Abandoned oil and gas wells, also called ‘orphaned’ wells, have been relinquished by companies that once used them. Well Done Foundation adopts the wells through an agreement to plug them up.

“So the well that we were on today, the Anderson #5 was drilled in 1926, and produced viable oil for maybe seventy of those years,” Shuck said.

Shuck says wells will transfer from operator to operator until the last person standing is out of business because the well is no longer commercially viable. He was inspired to start the foundation after discovering so many orphaned wells in Toole County.

“Well, you see one and you start to see more," Shuck said. "And I was literally horrified and embarrassed as being in the oil and gas industry for nearly 30 years. I just I couldn't believe that in any universe that it would be OK to leave something like that behind for somebody else to deal with.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are millions of orphaned wells across the U.S.

A percentage of those wells, like Anderson #5, are considered ‘super emitters’ because they’re releasing so much methane. Steven Hamburg is the chief scientist with Environmental Defense Fund.

“Methane is a potent, short lived greenhouse gas, which is responsible for more than one quarter of the warming we're experiencing today,” Hamburg said.

Hamburg says methane needs to be dealt with quickly because it could cause more warming than carbon dioxide in the next couple decades.

“Methane is going to drive the climate changes we see in my lifetime and my daughters to a large degree," Hamburg said. "And carbon dioxide will dominate the changes that we see over our grandchildren's grandchildren's lifetime.”

The sources of methane emissions include raising livestock, managing waste, and producing fossil fuels – like oil and gas. At the annual Climate Change Conference, more than a hundred countries signed a pledge to reduce methane emissions from human sources by 30%.

When it comes to plugging orphaned wells, Shuck says it hasn’t been a cheap endeavor. It’s been paid for through corporate sponsors, individual donors, fundraisers, and even out-of-pocket expenses.

“We can make a big impact one well at a time, every little bit counts,” Shuck said.

So far, since November of 2019, the Well Done Foundation has plugged 14 wells with cement – creating approximately 40 jobs along the way. And that number will continue to grow as Well Done scales up.  

“We're opening up an entire new frontier, if you would, in the measurement and monitoring space,” Shuck said.

Shuck says the oil and gas industry is in a state of transition, and simply needs to adapt. Well Done Foundation has big plans for 2022 expanding into more states like Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and California.

“Let's leave this place better than the way we found it," he said. "Let's do our part and really lean in and we can make a difference and we are making a difference one well at a time."