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More than a century of oil and gas drilling has left behind
millions of abandoned wells https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-drilling-abandoned-specialreport/special-report-millions-of-abandoned-oil-wells-are-leaking-methane-a-climate-menace-idUSKBN23N1NL,
many of which are emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas,
into the atmosphere. Oil and gas companies are likely to abandon
many more wells as demand for clean energy replaces that for
fossil fuels.
The bill, sponsored by Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez,
comes a week after President Joe Biden's administration unveiled
a $2 trillion infrastructure proposal - dubbed the American Jobs
Plan - that called for a $16 billion investment to plug orphaned
wells and clean up abandoned mines.
The Biden initiative is aimed in part at providing work for oil
and gas employees likely to be displaced by a move away from
fossil fuels because of climate change.
Leger Fernandez said in an interview that her bill "does the two
things that the American Jobs Plan is looking at, which is both
create jobs and address some of the pressing national problems
we have."
Her bill would provide $7.25 billion in grants for well cleanups
on state and private lands and $700 million for plugging on
public and tribal lands.
State eligibility for the grants would be tied to various
metrics, including the ability to put people to work quickly, a
state's oil and gas job losses, the number of abandoned wells
and efforts to tighten plugging regulations, reduce methane
emissions and boost spending on cleanups.
Leger Fernandez's home state of New Mexico is a major oil and
gas producer.
The bill would also raise bonding amounts, the money that
drillers must pay to cover cleanup costs if they go bankrupt,
for companies with wells on public lands. The U.S. Government
Accountability Office has said that existing levels are not
sufficient, leaving taxpayers on the hook for cleanups.
Bonds for wells on a single lease would rise to $150,000 from
$10,000, while bonds for all of a driller's wells in a state
would go to $500,000 from $25,000. Companies would also be
required to pay new fees for idle wells on public lands.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by David Gregorio and Peter
Cooney)
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