Plug Offshore Wells Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4239 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4239

    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.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 26, 2026

    Mr. Welch (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Wyden, and Mr. Markey)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
               Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

    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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Plug Offshore Wells Act''.

SEC. 2. ANNUAL REPORT ON DECOMMISSIONING OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS WELLS,
              PLATFORMS, AND PIPELINES.

    (a) Definitions.--In this Act:
            (1) Decommissioning.--The term ``decommissioning'' has the
        meaning given the term in section 250.1700 of title 30, Code of
        Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation).
            (2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
        of the Interior.
    (b) Annual Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date of
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall
submit to Congress and make publicly available on the website of the
Department of the Interior a report that describes, with respect to the
preceding calendar year--
            (1) the number of applications for decommissioning an
        offshore oil and gas well, platform, or pipeline that were
        required to be submitted pursuant to subpart Q of part 250 of
        title 30, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor
        regulations);
            (2) the number of applications described in paragraph (1)
        that were received by the Secretary;
            (3) the number of offshore oil and gas wells, platforms,
        and pipelines for which decommissioning did not occur by the
        date required pursuant to subpart Q of part 250 of title 30,
        Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regulations);
            (4) the number of offshore oil and gas wells and platforms
        approved for decommissioning in place pursuant to section
        250.1750 of title 30, Code of Federal Regulations (or a
        successor regulation);
            (5) the length of any offshore oil and gas pipelines that--
                    (A) were decommissioned in place pursuant to
                section 250.1750 of title 30, Code of Federal
                Regulations (or a successor regulation); and
                    (B) were removed pursuant to--
                            (i) section 250.1752 of title 30, Code of
                        Federal Regulations (or a successor
                        regulation); and
                            (ii) section 250.1754 of title 30, Code of
                        Federal Regulations (or a successor
                        regulation); and
            (6) the status of enforcement actions, including notices of
        incident of noncompliance, orders, citations, civil penalties,
        and disqualifications from future offshore operations, by the
        Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement with respect to
        decommissioning offshore oil and gas wells, platforms, and
        pipelines.
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