Strategic Production Response Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer Castro amendment No. 4.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer an amendment to the Strategic Production Reserve Act to prohibit the Secretary of Energy from approving new oil and gas leases on Federal lands that have high concentrations of orphaned oil and gas wells.

Over the 160-year history of industrial oil and gas extraction in the United States, companies have dug millions of oil wells to fuel energy demands at home and around the world.

When the pumps run dry and the wells are no longer profitable, companies are supposed to seal them up to stop toxic chemicals from escaping into the environment. Unfortunately, they often have not.

Between the lax regulations of the oil boom and the patchwork of current State and Federal laws, oil companies have been able to shirk their responsibility to keep the communities around their wells safe.

Today, the American landscape is dotted with abandoned, uncapped wells that leak toxins into the air we breathe and the water we drink.

The U.S. Geological Survey has documented more than 117,000 orphaned wells, and the EPA estimates that as many as 3 million could exist across the country.

Last year, as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Congress authorized $4.7 billion in investment to plug orphaned wells and protect the areas around them from further environmental harm.

But even with this funding, the government is playing whack-a-mole-- with new orphaned wells emerging as we struggle to clean up the ones we already have.

Right now, as we debate this bill, the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the country is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy that could leave more than 70,000 orphaned wells spewing poison in different parts of the country.

As taxpayers cover the tab for the mess that oil companies created, we should not be signing leases that open the door to a new generation of orphaned wells.

My State of Texas is the top oil and gas producing State in the Nation, and I am acutely aware of how important the energy industry is to our State and our national economy.

This amendment does not ask oil companies to repay taxpayers for the billions we have already spent to clean up their toxic wells, and it doesn't prevent further drilling.

Instead, it pauses new drilling leases on Federal lands with the highest concentration of orphaned wells--giving the government a chance to catch up with the cleanup efforts that are already underway.

This is a commonsense amendment that would bring relief to the 14 million Americans who live within a mile of an orphaned well.

Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source