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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5508 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 5508

    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.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 12, 2024

    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.

    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 successor regulations).
            (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 successor 
        regulations);
            (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 successor regulations); and
                    (B) were removed pursuant to--
                            (i) section 250.1752 of title 30, Code of 
                        Federal Regulations (or successor regulations); 
                        and
                            (ii) section 250.1754 of title 30, Code of 
                        Federal Regulations (or successor regulations); 
                        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.
                                 <all>
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