Bill Text: CA AB1866 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Oil and gas: idle wells.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-25 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 548, Statutes of 2024. [AB1866 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB1866-Introduced.html
Introduced by Assembly Member Hart |
January 18, 2024 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 3206 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:(a)The operator of any idle well shall do either of the following:
(1)No later than May 1 of each year, for each idle well that was an idle well at any time in the last calendar year, file with the supervisor an annual fee equal to the sum of the following amounts:
(A)One hundred fifty dollars ($150) for each idle well that has been an idle well for three years or longer, but less than eight years.
(B)Three hundred dollars ($300) for each idle well that has been an idle well for eight years or longer, but less than 15 years.
(C)Seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) for each idle well that has been an idle well for 15 years or longer, but less than 20 years.
(D)One thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) for each idle well that has been an idle well for 20 years or longer.
(2)File a plan with the supervisor to provide for the management and elimination of all long-term idle wells.
(A)For the purposes of the plan required by this paragraph,
3206.
(a) On or before July 1, 2025, the operator of any idle well, as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 3008, shall file a plan with the supervisor to provide for the management and elimination of all idle wells. For purposes of the plan, elimination of an idle well shall be accomplished when the well has been properly abandoned in accordance with Section 3208, or it has been shown to the division’s satisfaction that, since the well became an idle well, the well has maintained production of oil or gas or been used for injection for a continuous six-month period. The plan shall comply with all of the following:(i)The plan shall specify
(ii)The plan shall be
(iii)
(iv)Unless and until the operator has no long-term idle wells, the plan shall require
(v)An operator who fails to comply with the plan, as determined by the supervisor after the annual performance review, is not eligible to use the requirements of this paragraph, for purposes of compliance with this section, for any of its idle wells. That operator may not propose a new idle well plan for the next five years. An operator may appeal to the director pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 3350) regarding the supervisor’s rejection of a plan and plan amendments and the supervisor’s determination of the operator’s failure to comply with a plan. If the supervisor’s determination that the operator failed to comply with the plan is not timely appealed, or if the director upholds the supervisor’s determination upon appeal, then the operator shall immediately file the fees required under paragraph (1) for each year that the operator failed to comply with the plan.
(c)Failure to file, for any well, the fee required under this section shall be conclusive evidence of desertion of the well, permitting the supervisor to order the well abandoned pursuant to Section 3237.
(d)Nothing in this section prohibits a local agency from collecting a fee for regulation of wells.
(e)This section shall become operative on January 1, 2018.