By Congresswoman Stephanie Bice
If you drove across our state of Oklahoma, you would see nearly half a million wells that have been drilled into open fields. While they support hundreds of thousands of jobs and contribute to producing clean American energy when active, abandoned wells and legacy sites have become a major problem for landowners. These sites cause environmental hazards and are extremely costly, which is why my colleague Representative Conor Lamb (PA-17) and I crafted H.R. 4270, the Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act. I’m proud that it passed out of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee unanimously last week and will next be considered on the House Floor.
Landowners should not have to bear the costs of the estimated 700,000 to 3,000,000 abandoned wells in the United States, costing between $30,000 to $1,000,000 per well to plug. Wells in remote locations, like tribal lands, are more difficult to locate and plug, thus increasing the cost and likelihood they remain unmitigated.
This bipartisan legislation would directly address these issues through establishing an abandoned wells research, development, and demonstration program at the Department of Energy for the sole purpose of reducing the cost of plugging, remediating, and restoring abandoned or orphaned wells. It would also improve the technology pinpoint and map the location of abandoned wells.
Although the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board does a great job of cleaning up well sites, focusing on innovating, improving technologies and methods associated with plugging and the remediation process for abandoned wells could reduce the overall costs, improve the efficiency of remediation, mitigate environmental harms, and reduce methane emissions across the nation.
While a provision within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides authorization of appropriations for plugging, remediation, and reclamation of orphaned wells located on Federal and state lands, it provides minimal policy direction to help decrease the cost of these activities. Additionally, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorizes $30,000,000 for the Secretary of Energy to conduct research and development related to abandoned and orphaned wells, but does not establish a continuous program or objectives to conduct this work long term. H.R. 4270 fully responds to the needs of American landowners and unlocks the potential of these forgotten wells by utilizing our resources to their maximum amount.
As the Ranking Member of the Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on the Environment, I am committed to finding ways to produce a cleaner, more innovative and efficient America while also creating jobs, cutting costs, and boosting our economy.
