Sponsors (4)
The bill improves transparency about offshore decommissioning—helping communities, taxpayers, and regulators track risks and compliance—while imposing modest administrative costs, posing potential proprietary disclosure risks for companies, and not guaranteeing faster cleanup or remediation.
Coastal communities and the general public (including rural communities and local governments) will get an annual, centralized report on offshore decommissioning progress, improving public oversight of environmental risks and regulatory transparency.
Taxpayers and consumers may benefit from clearer enforcement data that can identify noncompliance earlier and help reduce future cleanup costs.
Energy companies and regulators receive regular summaries of enforcement outcomes and decommissioning actions (e.g., approvals, pipeline removal lengths) to inform compliance planning and regulatory coordination.
Communities seeking faster cleanup or more remediation may see little practical change, because mandated public reporting alone does not require accelerated decommissioning or additional remediation actions.
Public reporting could disclose proprietary operational details that energy companies consider sensitive, potentially raising compliance costs, legal disputes, or discouraging investment.
The Interior Department and BSEE will incur administrative costs to produce the required annual reports starting within two years, costs that are borne by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Interior Secretary to publish an annual public report on offshore oil and gas decommissioning activity, including counts, statuses, and enforcement actions.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Peter Welch · Last progress March 26, 2026
Requires the Secretary of the Interior to publish a public report each year (starting within two years of enactment) detailing decommissioning activity for offshore oil and gas wells, platforms, and pipelines for the prior calendar year. The report must include counts of applications, facilities missing regulatory deadlines, approvals to decommission structures or pipelines in place, lengths of pipelines removed vs. left in place, and the status of Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) enforcement actions.