Measure to Ramp Up Plugging Requirements Moves to Full Senate Vote
August 18, 2024 – SACRAMENTO, CA – A bill to substantially increase oil industry requirements to plug and clean up idle oil and gas wells was approved by the California Senate Appropriations Committee last Thursday. The bill would significantly increase the number of idle wells companies must plug each year. It now goes to a full Senate vote.
Assembly Bill 1866 is sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity. It’s backed by more than 100 public health, labor and environmental groups, who sent a letter of support for the bill, which would speed well cleanup, protect communities and the climate, and create tens of thousands of jobs.
“We’re on the brink of passing this commonsense bill that makes the dirty, dangerous oil industry clean up its own mess,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “This crucial bill has received strong support at every stage of the legislative process. We’re counting on the Senate and the governor to get the job done.”
California has tens of thousands of idle oil and gas wells across the state. Operators are legally obligated to plug the wells and restore the surface, but existing laws do little to force them to act, allowing them to instead pay a nominal fee each year to keep wells unplugged.
Under current law, operators can pay a small fee to avoid plugging any wells. Even if they choose to submit a plugging plan, operators only need to plug 4% to 6% of their oldest idle wells to meet the state’s minimal requirements. Other states like North Dakota and West Virginia require operators to plug idle wells within one year.
Assembly Bill 1866 would require all operators to plug a significant portion of their existing idle wells. The largest operators would be required to plug 20% of their idle wells per year, while medium operators would have to plug 15%. Small operators would have to plug 10% per year. The law would also eliminate the option to pay an idle well fee instead of meeting plugging requirements.
In addition to reducing health and environmental threats, the bill would create thousands of oil industry jobs in communities transitioning away from fossil fuels. A map from the Make Polluters Pay coalition shows more than 24,000 jobs can be created through idle well remediation operations in California.
According to a 2023 report from Sierra Club California, plugging all of California’s onshore oil and gas wells would cost about $23 billion. Yet the oil industry has set aside only $106 million in bonds, according to an analysis by Carbon Tracker. Oil companies that have declared bankruptcy have walked away from their legal cleanup obligations and left taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars. As the oil industry declines, the threat that companies will weaponize the bankruptcy process to escape cleanup responsibilities will increase.
Idle wells pose a grave threat to public health, the environment and the climate. Dozens of idle wells in Kern County were discovered to be leaking methane in residential neighborhoods — some at concentrations high enough to be explosive.
By one estimate, about two-thirds of unplugged oil and gas wells in California are leaking methane — a climate super-pollutant over 80 times more climate-heating than carbon dioxide over the short term. Wells that leak methane likely also leak other dangerous air pollutants like benzene and other volatile organic compounds. Idle wells can also act as pathways for contaminants to move into groundwater, especially as wells get older.
The bill now goes to the full California Senate and if passed will receive a concurrence vote in the Assembly before moving to the governor to sign into law.
Photo credit: San Ardo Oil Fields | San Ardo, California by Drew Bird Photography
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
