Congress demands public scorecards on oil industry cleanup
S. 4239 — Plug Offshore Wells Act · Filed by Peter Welch (D-VT) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 26, 2026 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill requires the Interior Secretary to publish an annual public report on offshore oil and gas decommissioning—tracking how many companies apply to decommission wells and pipelines, how many actually do so on time, how many are approved to leave infrastructure in place underwater, and what enforcement actions the government takes against non-compliance. Citizens and Congress gain visibility into whether the oil industry is cleaning up after itself.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is mandatory public reporting on decommissioning compliance and enforcement. It does not change decommissioning rules, grant exemptions, or alter liability—it simply requires the government to disclose data that already exists in agency records.
What the text implies
- Public reporting may increase political pressure on Interior to enforce decommissioning rules more aggressively, potentially raising compliance costs for operators.
- Transparency on 'decommissioning in place' approvals (leaving infrastructure underwater) may prompt public debate over whether this practice adequately protects marine environments.
- Annual enforcement data disclosure could expose patterns of selective enforcement or resource constraints at BSEE, creating accountability pressure on the agency itself.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates mandatory public transparency on offshore decommissioning compliance and enforcement, allowing citizens and Congress to monitor whether oil companies are meeting legal cleanup obligations. No new exemptions, subsidies, or liability shields are granted; the mechanism is purely informational accountability.
Named in the bill
Secretary of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Department of the Interior, 30 CFR 250 (offshore oil and gas regulations)
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Democrats.
- Mar 26, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 26, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $636,600 in lobbying spend. A filing names 79 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Peter Welch, the sponsor, reported $44,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Earthjustice Action — $376,600 on 2 filings
- Ocean Conservancy — $260,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,200 characters) on Aug 16, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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