Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act
SB 818, the Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act, would amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create a new federal research, development, and demonstration program focused on abandoned oil and gas wells. The bill defines an abandoned well as one that was drilled for oil and gas operations, is no longer in use, has not been plugged, and has no anticipated future use in oil and gas production.
Under the bill, the Secretary of Energy would be required to establish the program within 120 days of enactment, working with relevant federal and state agencies. The program would support research on locating abandoned wells, improving plugging and remediation methods, reducing environmental impacts, and exploring repurposing options such as geothermal energy production and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. It also directs attention to technologies such as remote sensing, LiDAR, optical gas imaging, and magnetic surveys, and to factors affecting methane emissions and groundwater contamination.
The bill would add a new Section 40602 to Title VI of Division D of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and update that law’s table of contents accordingly. It would not directly mandate cleanup of specific wells, but it would create a federal program to advance the science, technology, and coordination needed to identify, plug, remediate, reclaim, and potentially repurpose abandoned wells. The bill also authorizes appropriations totaling $162.5 million over fiscal years 2026 through 2030, which would affect the Department of Energy, state partners, universities, national laboratories, and private-sector participants involved in abandoned well work.
The available context suggests generally positive and bipartisan interest in the bill. It was introduced by Senator Luján with Senator Cramer as a cosponsor, indicating cross-party support. No committee transcript or recorded votes were provided, and the bill had only been read twice and referred to committee, so there is no evidence in the supplied materials of formal opposition or amendment debate. The framing of the bill emphasizes environmental protection, methane reduction, and practical remediation research, which are typically viewed favorably by both energy and environmental stakeholders.
No specific points of contention appear in the provided record because there are no committee transcripts or votes. Potential areas of debate, based on the bill text, could include the level of federal spending, the role of the Department of Energy versus state agencies, and whether federal research should focus on plugging abandoned wells or also on repurposing them for geothermal or carbon capture uses. Another possible issue is how the program would address undocumented wells and the extent to which it would prioritize methane mitigation and groundwater protection versus economic reuse.