Video & Transcript Research : 'inactive wells'
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TX
Transcript Highlights:
- But in trying to get the abandoned wells and inactive wells, you know, so I see the same parallel in
- House Bill 2663 will require operators of oil and gas wells that have been inactive for 10 or more years
- -year mark, if you're going to continue to have the well be inactive, now you've got to de-electrify
- House Bill 2663 requires oil and gas operators to remove electrical equipment from inactive well sites
- But then there's this other issue of old electrical equipment found on older wells that are inactive.
Keywords:
occupational licenses, renewal, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, registration, license expiration, HB 2663, inactive well, plugging extension, Railroad Commission of Texas, RRC, oil and gas, orphan wells, well cleanup, well plugging, abandoned wells, surface equipment removal, electric service termination, administrative penalty, Natural Resources Code, Section 89.029
Summary:
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources heard several House bills dealing with environmental regulation, oil and gas safety, landfill permits, and utility cost recovery. HB 1237, by Rep. Geren and sponsored by Sen. Zaffirini, would extend TCEQ occupational license renewal deadlines from 30 days to 90 days, allow renewal up to one year with higher fees, and require a new application after longer expiration; the committee substitute clarified that applicants may continue working only until renewal is approved or denied and set a 180-day cutoff for renewal. HB 3071, sponsored by Sen. Hancock, would require TCEQ to cancel certain long-dormant municipal solid waste permits; members discussed concerns about precedent, ownership changes, and whether the bill should be narrowed, and the bill was left pending with a committee substitute expected.
The committee also heard HB 2663, sponsored by Sen. Birdwell, which would require operators of inactive oil and gas wells to remove or de-energize electrical equipment after 10 years and authorize Railroad Commission penalties for false compliance. Testimony from landowners, cattle raisers, and the Sierra Club supported the bill as a wildfire-prevention measure, and the bill was left pending. HB 4384, also by Rep. Darby and sponsored by Sen. Birdwell, would let natural gas utilities defer certain infrastructure costs for later recovery through the GRIP process; utility representatives supported it as credit-positive and consistent with existing accounting, while consumer advocates opposed it as increasing rates without enough oversight. The committee discussed possible amendments to add more cost controls, and the bill was left pending.
Later, the committee voted HB 2563, the companion to SB 2510, favorably to the full Senate by a 5-0 vote and ordered it certified for the local and uncontested calendar. The committee then took up HB 143, which would codify interagency procedures for addressing electrical power line safety at well sites and related facilities after wildfire concerns; members said a committee substitute had been negotiated with agencies and stakeholders to clarify responsibilities, timelines, and inspection authority while reducing fiscal impact. No final vote was taken on HB 143, and the committee recessed with several bills still pending.
TX
Keywords:
occupational licenses, renewal, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, registration, license expiration, HB 2663, inactive well, plugging extension, Railroad Commission of Texas, RRC, oil and gas, orphan wells, well cleanup, well plugging, abandoned wells, surface equipment removal, electric service termination, administrative penalty, Natural Resources Code, Section 89.029
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- The bill's not the same as either an orphaned or an inactive well in the sense that the public is not
- In trying to get the abandoned wells and inactive wells, I see the same parallel in what you're trying
- It doesn't say you've now made it an inactive well, turn everything off.
- But at the 10-year mark, if you're going to continue to have the well being inactive, now you've got
- Section 663 requires oil and gas operators to remove electrical equipment from inactive well sites, and
Keywords:
occupational licenses, renewal, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, registration, license expiration, HB 2663, inactive well, plugging extension, Railroad Commission of Texas, RRC, oil and gas, orphan wells, well cleanup, well plugging, abandoned wells, surface equipment removal, electric service termination, administrative penalty, Natural Resources Code, Section 89.029
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- The roster of inactive wells has swollen over time.
- has been inactive, current... economic conditions, the well operator's percentage of inactive wells,
- had a well go inactive.
- place, meaning once a well Well hits 15 years inactive, an operator has 10 years to plug it.
- Fewer than 25% of inactive wells return to service.
Keywords:
inactive wells, oil and gas regulation, environmental protection, Railroad Commission of Texas, well plugging, Railroad Commission, penalties, violations, pipeline safety, civil penalties, criminal penalties, wildfire prevention, oil and gas, safety inspections, administrative penalties, excavation, notification, utilities, underground facilities, regulatory compliance
ND
North Dakota 2025-2026 Regular Session
Senate Finance and Taxation Apr 16th, 2025 at 09:00 am
Finance and Taxation
Transcript Highlights:
- Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome back to Finance and Tax.
- Well, we all know that on bond issues, a typical bond issue is for like 20 years, and so we need to make
- Well, now maybe we can open it up for questions from members. I'll do my best.
- So other than that, I appreciate Association of Counties being gracious on the June 1st date as well.
- Well, what did I have? We got line 5 and line 10. Yeah, I meant line 10. Excuse me.
Bills:
SB2397
Keywords:
oil and gas, tax exemption, development incentive wells, gross production tax, flaring, 908, all
Summary:
The Senate Finance and Tax Committee met and first took up House Bill 1382, the gas tax bill. Members explained an amendment to ensure that the proposed three-cent gas tax distribution would include all counties and townships in oil-producing counties, rather than excluding non-oil-producing counties as in the original draft. The committee adopted the amendment unanimously, but then held the bill for the time being because of related work on the Department of Transportation budget in the House.
The committee then turned to House Bill 1168, a large hoghouse amendment that combined the bill with the contents of House Bill 1176 and added technical corrections. The proposal would raise the primary residence property tax credit maximum from $1,250 to $1,650, keep the 75% cap with a $500 floor, and extend the credit to voter-approved levies while excluding special assessments. Other changes discussed included aligning the disabled veterans property tax credit with the $200,000 exemption level, adjusting budget and distribution dates so taxing districts are made whole sooner, exempting townships from a general-election vote requirement for levy increases, and modifying school funding formulas so schools are not shortchanged if mill levies are reduced under the cap.
Testimony from the Association of Counties and the State Supervisor of Assessments was generally supportive of the technical cleanup and implementation changes, but they raised concerns about the June 1 distribution date, application timing, and the practicality of some programming and administrative changes. Committee members also discussed the policy and messaging implications of the 75%/floor structure and the difficulty of applying the credit to certain voter-approved levies. No final action was taken on House Bill 1168; the committee agreed to continue working on amendments and recessed until later in the day.
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- Our ranch has approximately 500 wells on it, and I would say 80 to 90 percent of those wells are inactive
- TLMA supported the initial inactive well cleanup legislation in 2009, and we support any efforts to continue
- Thank you to Chairman Darby for your work on this bill and ensuring that inactive wells do not continue
- So if you seek an extension to plug your inactive well under current law, this strengthens that language
- The likelihood is greatly lessened that an energized power line on an inactive well site will cause a
Keywords:
HB 48, oilfield theft, organized theft, petroleum products, oil and gas equipment, DPS, Department of Public Safety, Texas, Railroad Commission, criminal justice, energy resources, theft prevention, organized crime, border region, El Paso, law enforcement task force, asset recovery, pipeline theft, drilling equipment, equipment theft
AL
Alabama 2026 1st Special Session
Alabama House Economic Development and Tourism Committee Feb 11th, 2026
Economic Development and Tourism
Transcript Highlights:
- Covington County is well represented by you, sir, and you and I had great conversations, and I appreciate
- this is the bill that I passed last year out of this committee, and we passed it out of House 4 as well
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- Well, I think the setting an arbitrary cap in of itself.
- Well, there's, there's tears of that. There's tears of that.
- Well, the recoverability of the utilizezers of the system, right?
- Public Utility Commission is in a tough spot as well.
- Well, thank you for that, sir.
Keywords:
water audit, water loss, water loss mitigation plan, municipally owned utility, municipal utility, water conservation, Texas Water Development Board, TCEQ, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, water leakage, leak detection, billing data accuracy, utility validation, water audit validation, water scarcity, water management, infrastructure, public utility, conservation plan, administrative penalty
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- Well, I can...
- That's the domestic wells, private landowners' wells.
- . and well owners.
- They have this well viewer, and I narrowed it to just domestic and livestock wells.
- wells in the Carrizo.
Keywords:
water audit, water loss, water loss mitigation plan, municipally owned utility, municipal utility, water conservation, Texas Water Development Board, TCEQ, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, water leakage, leak detection, billing data accuracy, utility validation, water audit validation, water scarcity, water management, infrastructure, public utility, conservation plan, administrative penalty
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- All right, well, let me give it a shot.
- Well, it's not really, they report to TCEQ for quality.
- Well, there's tiers of that. There's tiers. ...of that.
- Well, there are recourses through the litigation process.
- Well, thank you for that, sir.
Keywords:
water audit, water loss, water loss mitigation plan, municipally owned utility, municipal utility, water conservation, Texas Water Development Board, TCEQ, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, water leakage, leak detection, billing data accuracy, utility validation, water audit validation, water scarcity, water management, infrastructure, public utility, conservation plan, administrative penalty
AL
Alabama 2025 Regular Session
Alabama House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee Apr 30th, 2025
Constitution, Campaigns and Elections
Keywords:
SB142, Alabama, voting, voter registration, election law, Secretary of State, board of registrars, ERIC, Electronic Registration Information Center, National Change of Address, NCOA, voter roll maintenance, address change, voter list cleanup, inactive voter, voter notification, forwardable mail, postage prepaid card, statewide voter registration database, county commission
AL
Alabama 2025 Regular Session
Alabama House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee Apr 9th, 2025
Constitution, Campaigns and Elections
Transcript Highlights:
- If you hit 75 or 80%, you've done very well. 135, 137 registration.
- Well, under the NB, so the way it works is we can send out a postcard.
- It always works, and you can speak to it as well.
- Well, once again, I keep hearing about how parents are taking care of kids well into their 40s, and so
- And they said, "Well, I became naturalized." They said, "Well, we don't have a list of that."
Keywords:
voting, elections, voter registration, voter rolls, list maintenance, address change, change of address, ERIC, Electronic Registration Information Center, AVID, Alabama Voter Integrity Database, Secretary of State, board of registrars, inactive voter, voter purge, duplicate registration, cross-state voter matching, National Change of Address, NCOA, driver license data
LA
Transcript Highlights:
- Maybe a court will say, well, the legislative history, we respect the legislative history.
- These fees help prevent the state from bearing the full cost of orphaned wells.
- So what this does is it sets up a new structure. ...wells that produce very little.
- wells at less than 50 percent of the full fee, oil from stripper wells less than 25 percent of the full
- fee, gas from low-pressure wells 40 percent of the full fee, and gas from incapable wells 17.5 percent
Keywords:
fishing gear, Oyster Bayou, shrimping, regulation, marine resources, HB621, Act 658, renewable energy, recycling, decommissioning, wind energy, solar power, solar facilities, wind turbines, energy infrastructure, end-of-life disposal, universal waste, recyclable materials, waste reduction, Department of Environmental Quality
AL
Alabama 2025 Regular Session
Alabama Senate County and Municipal Government Committee Feb 18th, 2025
County and Municipal Government
Transcript Highlights:
- I do want to commend them as well for this work.
- Well, we're looking forward to this. ...to deal with. Well, we're looking forward to it tomorrow.
- Well... ...driver's license look like? Well, it depends on which country it comes from.
- Um, well, I don't know if it's going to stay that way.
- And, Clark, if you can't, well then I need a motion to adopt.
Keywords:
archives, history, board of trustees, vacancies, government control, SB142, Alabama, voting, voter registration, election law, Secretary of State, board of registrars, ERIC, Electronic Registration Information Center, National Change of Address, NCOA, voter roll maintenance, address change, voter list cleanup, inactive voter
KY
Kentucky 2026 Regular Session
Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity (7-29-24)
Keywords:
KY LRC YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGLd6CvGMIM, 2026-06-21T07:17:08+00:00, 2.2.24, Data collected via generic collector engine, 00:00:05 – Roll Call Attendance
00:01:20 – Approval of June Minutes
00:01:40 – Searching for Kentucky’s Juneteenth
00:22:25 – Discussion on Elementary Education: The Promise Academy at William Wells Brown, 958, all, 2.2.42, 2.1.47
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- Well, that didn't happen.
- All right, well, I'm against the bill.
- This expressway has been pretty well received.
- OK, well, listen, I'm just a little...
- Well, we'll try and be respectful.
Bills:
HJR58, HJR63, HB263, HB542, HB905, HB 1288, HB1402, HB2003, HB2262, HB2323, HB2429, HB2876, HB3019, HB263
Keywords:
healthcare, insurance, elderly, retirement, benefits, transit-oriented projects, constitutional amendment, state highway fund, funding allocation, voter approval, highway fund, funding, public transportation, transit projects, transportation, local transit, fund allocation, voting rights, election integrity, ballot access
WY
Wyoming 2026 Regular Session
House Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee, February 17, 2026
Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources
Keywords:
groundwater, water resource management, state engineer, aquifer study, corrective controls, monitoring wells, public reporting, water conservation, Colorado River, drought, irrigation, water rights, voluntary program, interstate agreements, conservation districts, supervisors, elections, agriculture, local governance, beneficial use
WY
Wyoming 2026 Regular Session
Senate Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee, February 17, 2026
Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources
Transcript Highlights:
- And so Wyoming state statute as well.
- We have the acre spacings for wells.
- <01:27:45.600>
So all agriculture irrigation wells. So all agriculture irrigation wells. - , a test well is simply an exploratory<01:33:14.080>
well. - What we were exploratory well.
Keywords:
groundwater, water resource management, state engineer, aquifer study, corrective controls, monitoring wells, public reporting, water conservation, Colorado River, drought, irrigation, water rights, voluntary program, interstate agreements, conservation districts, supervisors, elections, agriculture, local governance, beneficial use
OK
Transcript Highlights:
- Education, having been a teacher as well. And with your permission, Mr.
- Looks like in the old language, this is an incentive to finalize noncompleted wells.
- I think it is newer wells or wells under construction. I don't believe it to be retroactive.
- Well Again, debate from the chair. Senator Murdock, thanks for bringing this up.
- Well, it's New Mexico. But what else did I do besides pick up feed? I went and ate.
Keywords:
education funding, linked deposits, education infrastructure, charter schools, nonprofit organizations, Oklahoma Education Infrastructure Program, rounding, cash payments, public finance, Oklahoma Common Cents Act, political subdivision, youth entrepreneurship, tax exemption, small business, income tax, Oklahoma Youth Entrepreneurs Promotion and Development Act, HB3661, Oklahoma sales tax, sales tax exemption, revenue and taxation
WY
Wyoming 2026 Regular Session
House Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee, February 26, 2026
Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources
Keywords:
wastewater, stormwater, infrastructure, environmental quality, public data, data collection, funding, study, water conservation, Colorado River, drought, irrigation, water rights, voluntary program, interstate agreements, groundwater, water resource management, state engineer, aquifer study, corrective controls