Protect bonding requirements – don’t let oil and gas companies leave taxpayers a mess to clean up!

When oil and gas wells stop producing, they can leave behind a legacy of harms, including destruction of local landscape and habitat, threats to underground sources of drinking water, leaks of climate-warming methane, and even residuals of toxic waste. Wells that no longer produce oil or gas have to be carefully plugged and the law requires sites to be reclaimed to the condition they were in before drilling took place.

This costs money. Sometimes a lot of money, depending on the site. If the oil and gas companies don’t pay for it, wells often sit open and unplugged on the landscape for decades and taxpayers will eventually be left with the bill. Yet, the Trump Administration is plotting to slash the financial guarantee that oil and gas companies must put up before they drill on public lands. These bonding rates ensure that it’s the oil and gas companies who drilled and profited from wells, not taxpayers, that foot the bill for plugging and cleaning them up.

With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Republicans in Congress have elevated oil and gas as the favored use of public lands, making oil and gas drilling on federal lands easier while simultaneously cutting the public out of the decision-making process.

Now, the Trump Administration is going even further by letting oil and gas companies off the hook for cleaning up dangerous old well sites on public lands after they’ve drilled. By reducing bonding rates, the Trump administration will leave taxpayers with billions of dollars in cleanup costs, resulting in more abandoned, polluting wells that will be left behind on the public lands that Westerners use every day.

It’s critical that we defend current bonding rates to protect taxpayers and the health of our lands and waters.

Join us to defend bonding regulations from attacks!

Through a series of actions, including Executive Orders and Secretarial Orders aimed at “American energy dominance,” the Administration and oil and gas industry allies in Congress are seeking to make reckless fossil fuel development the predominant use of our shared public lands, at the expense of our communities.

Industry-funded politicians in Congress are also looking to use budget reconciliation to advance their priorities quickly. Since reconciliation is not subject to filibuster in the Senate, a bill can pass that chamber with 51 votes instead of 60. They are prioritizing policies that elevate oil and gas development above all other uses of public lands, including:

  • Expanding oil and gas leasing on public lands through mandated quarterly lease sales, and requiring lease sales on all eligible federal parcels in eight Western states – that’s over 200 million acres.
  • Repealing Inflation Reduction Act provisions, including fiscal reforms, expression of interest fees, and reinstating the wasteful practice whereby oil and gas companies can purchase leases non-competitively for just $1.50/acre, and more.
  • Forcing the Department of the Interior to offer all industry-nominated parcels for lease by prohibiting deferrals.
  • Ending the restriction of new leasing in areas that local communities worked hard for years to protect because of their importance to the people who live there, like the Greater Chaco Canyon region in New Mexico and the Thompson Divide in Colorado.

Join us to defend oil and gas regulations from reckless attacks!

 

Name

Who We Are

  • The Coalition for Oil and Gas Reform’s members are: California Environmental Voters, Center for Western Priorities, Colorado Wildlife Federation, Conservation Colorado, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Dakota Resource Council, Earthjustice, Hispanics Enjoying Camping Hunting and the Outdoors, Hispanic Access Foundation, League of Conservation Voters, Nevada Conservation League, New Mexico Voices for Children, Montana Wildlife Federation, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, National Parks Conservation Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, Nevada Wildlife Federation, Public Citizen, Rocky Mountain Wild, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Wild Montana, Wilderness Workshop, Western Organization of Resource Councils, Western Colorado Alliance, and Wyoming Outdoor Council

    Photo Credit: John Mullen