Sponsors (5)
The bill expands flexible grant access and funds an independent study that can improve local water-safety information and planning, but it reduces federal leverage to require methane monitoring—raising risks that emissions tracking, oversight, and near-term environmental and public-health protections will be weakened.
Rural communities and homeowners near reclaimed oil and gas sites will receive improved water-quality assessments that inform local water-safety actions.
Congress, federal agencies, and state governments will get an independent, peer-reviewed report on plugging and remediation to guide future policy and funding decisions.
Local and state planners will obtain evidence on post-remediation economic development and housing trends to support land-use and redevelopment decisions.
State governments may opt not to perform methane monitoring, reducing monitoring uptake and potentially slowing detection and reduction of methane emissions that affect air quality and climate.
Nearby urban and rural communities could face higher health and safety risks from undetected methane leaks or emissions if states do not measure methane.
Federal oversight and the ability to evaluate grant program effectiveness may be weakened if recipients are not required to collect emissions data.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Clarifies that States need not measure methane to get orphan well remediation grants and requires a National Academies study on local benefits of plugging and reclamation.
Introduced February 11, 2025 by Glenn Thompson · Last progress February 11, 2025
Removes a federal grant eligibility barrier by making clear that States do not have to measure methane emissions or carry out certain other specified activities to qualify for orphan-well plugging and remediation grants under current law. It also directs the Secretary of the Interior to arrange a National Academies study (with regional representation and interagency consultation) on the local economic, housing, water-quality, and other community effects of plugging and reclaiming orphan wells, using amounts already available to the department. The bill sets short deadlines: the Secretary must seek the agreement with the National Academies within 180 days of enactment, the Academies must include at least one State from each U.S. region and consult with HUD and other agencies, and must deliver a report to Congress no later than 18 months after the last grant awarded under the referenced grant program.