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Committee hears bill to restore oil-and-gas reclamation funding; members temporarily table measure
Summary
Sponsors urged restoring the oil-and-gas reclamation fund, saying prior sweeps reduced resources for plugging orphan wells; the committee temporarily tabled the committee substitute for HB 403 for additional consideration and interim study.
Sponsor remarks and industry and committee discussion focused on restoring money to the state oil-and-gas reclamation fund to address orphaned and abandoned wells.
Representative Burt introduced the committee substitute for House Bill 4 03 and described the history of the reclamation fund, saying the conservation tax and other industry levies historically financed plugging, abandonment and reclamation work. He and others argued that prior "sweeps" of the fund left a backlog of wells. Jim Winchester, an industry representative, told the committee the substitute corrects a historic diversion and would make the reclamation fund whole so the Oil Conservation Division (OCD) has capital to plug and remediate abandoned wells.
Sponsor and committee discussion supplied estimates and context: the transcript records the reclamation fund balance at various points, including past and present figures cited in committee testimony (the transcript indicates the fund balance "currently sits at about $66,000,000" in committee discussion) and references to thousands of wells statewide. Representative Murphy and others described distribution-schedule changes in the committee substitute intended to give the OCD time to ramp up capacity while mitigating year-one impacts to the general fund.
Action and outcome: Committee members moved to temporarily table the committee substitute for House Bill 4 03; that motion was seconded and carried without recorded opposition, and the bill was temporarily tabled for further consideration, including a request from some members to study the problem in the interim.
Why it matters: Committee members said restoring dedicated reclamation funding would reduce the backlog of orphan wells and protect taxpayers from the costs of remediation if operators cannot be located or pay. Supporters said decades of prior sweeps reduced the fund's ability to act as the intended backstop.
Next steps: The committee temporarily tabled the bill and several members formally requested an interim study to examine long-term funding and programmatic options for well plugging and reclamation.
