HR8099Referred to Committee

Plug Offshore Wells Act

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Introduced
In Committee
3
Passed One Chamber
4
Passed Both
5
Signed into Law
119th
Congress
2026-03-26
Introduced
9
Cosponsors
HR
ⓘ
Type

Sponsor

Maxine Dexter
Maxine Dexter
Democrat · OR · Representative
Votes with party: 97.5% (553 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/D000635

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (9)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.

2026-03-26

Source: Congress.gov

Committee Activity

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Plain-English Summary

The federal government would be required to publish an annual public report detailing the status and progress of removing abandoned offshore oil and gas infrastructure, including wells, platforms, and pipelines from U.S. waters. This transparency measure would help Congress and the public track how quickly and effectively the government is cleaning up old energy facilities that are no longer in use. The requirement applies to the Secretary of the Interior, the official responsible for managing federal ocean resources.

AI-assisted summary generated from the official bill metadata (title, subjects, actions) sourced from Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed. Always verify against the official text linked below.

Subjects

Environmental Protection

Full Bill Text

Verbatim text published on Congress.gov via GovInfo. Use Cmd+F / Ctrl+F to search within this excerpt.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 8099 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 8099 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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 26, 2026 Ms. Dexter (for herself, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Min, Mr. Kennedy of New York, Ms. Brownley, Ms. Norton, Mr. Mullin, and Mr. Levin) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 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 incidents 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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