Sponsors (11)
The bill increases public and regulatory transparency and enforcement accountability around offshore decommissioning—helping communities and environmental oversight—while imposing modest taxpayer-funded administrative costs, potential commercial harms to operators, and a two-year wait before the first report.
Coastal communities, local governments, and the public gain regular, detailed transparency about offshore decommissioning (annual counts and statuses), improving local oversight and planning.
Taxpayers and regulators can better track environmental risk from legacy offshore infrastructure by knowing how many facilities missed decommissioning deadlines and which pipelines remain in place versus removed.
Improved enforcement transparency (publication of notices, orders, penalties, disqualifications) increases accountability for operators and may deter noncompliance.
The Department of the Interior will incur additional reporting and administrative costs to produce the new public reports, costs ultimately borne by taxpayers.
Operators could suffer reputational and commercial harm from public release of detailed enforcement and noncompliance data, increasing legal or financial exposure.
A two-year delay before the first required report could postpone visibility into current decommissioning backlogs or risks, limiting near-term protection and situational awareness for coastal communities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Interior Department to publish an annual public report on offshore well, platform, and pipeline decommissioning, starting within two years.
Official title: To require the Secretary of the Interior to annually submit to Congress, and make publicly available on a website, a report on decommissioning offshore oil and gas wells, platforms, and pipelines, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Maxine Dexter · Last progress March 26, 2026
Requires the Interior Department to publish an annual, public report on decommissioning (plugging and removal) of offshore oil and gas wells, platforms, and pipelines. The first report is due no later than two years after enactment and then every year thereafter and must include counts and status information about decommissioning applications, missed deadlines, approvals to decommission in place, pipeline lengths decommissioned or removed, and enforcement actions by BSEE. The law defines decommissioning consistent with existing federal regulations and directs the Secretary of the Interior to make the information publicly available to improve transparency and oversight of offshore decommissioning activities.