# The REGROW Act: Cleaning Up Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells

This bill creates a federal program to deal with a major environmental problem: thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells scattered across the country that nobody is responsible for anymore. These "orphaned wells" are old drilling sites where the original companies have gone out of business, disappeared, or simply can't afford to clean them up. They're left sitting there, often leaking methane gas into the atmosphere and potentially contaminating groundwater.

The bill sets up two main approaches to fix this. First, the federal government will directly handle orphaned wells on public lands managed by the Interior Department and Agriculture Department. The government will identify these wells, rank them by how dangerous they are (based on public health risks and environmental damage), and then plug them up and restore the surrounding land. Second, the bill gives money to states to tackle orphaned wells on private and state-owned land. States can receive initial grants of up to $25 million (or $5 million for states without existing programs) to get started, plus additional ongoing funding based on how many orphaned wells they have and how many jobs were lost in their oil and gas industry.

The money can be used for more than just plugging wells. States can use it to find undocumented wells, clean up contaminated soil, restore habitats, remove old pipelines and equipment, and track pollution like methane emissions and groundwater contamination. The bill specifically requires both the federal program and state programs to pay attention to whether orphaned wells are disproportionately harming low-income communities, communities of color, and Native American tribes. States have to spend at least 90 percent of their initial grants on actual cleanup work within 90 days, and they can't use more than 10 percent for administrative costs. The bill also requires the government to try to track down whoever originally operated these wells and make them pay for cleanup if possible.

REGROW Act of 2021

Revive Economic Growth and Reclaim Orphaned Wells Act of 2021 or the REGROW Act of 2021 This bill provides funding for grants to plug orphaned (i.e., abandoned) oil and gas wells, clean up pollution leaking from such wells, and conduct research and related activities. Specifically, the bill provides funding for a grant program within the Department of the Interior to plug and clean up orphaned wells located on federal, state, tribal, and private land. In addition, the bill provides funding to the Department of Energy and the Oil and Gas Compact Commission for conducting research and development activities to assist federal land management agencies, states, and Indian tribes in (1) identifying and characterizing undocumented orphaned wells, and (2) mitigating the environmental risks of undocumented orphaned wells.