Existing law authorizes the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to order certain operations to be carried out on any property in the vicinity of which, or on which, is located any well or facility that the supervisor determines to be a hazardous well, an idle-deserted well, a hazardous facility, or a deserted facility, as specified.
Existing law prohibits the Geologic Energy Management Division from expending more than $3,000,000 in any one fiscal year, for the 2018–19 fiscal year to the 2021–22 fiscal year, inclusive, and, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, no more than $1,000,000 in any one fiscal year for those purposes related to hazardous wells, idle-deserted wells, hazardous facilities, and deserted facilities. Existing law establishes the Oil and Gas Environmental Remediation Account in the Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund to
be administered and managed by the division, and requires that the moneys in the account be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to plug and abandon oil and gas wells, decommission attendant facilities, or otherwise remediate sites that the supervisor determines could pose a danger to life, health, water quality, wildlife, or natural resources if there is no operator determined by the supervisor to be responsible for remediation or who is able to respond. requires the Department of Conservation, on April 1, 2021, to report information to the Legislature on hazardous wells, idle-deserted wells, deserted facilities, and hazardous facilities, as provided, and to provide an update on the report to the Legislature on October 1, 2023.
This bill, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year,
and continuing thereafter, instead would indefinitely raise the cap on spending for these purposes from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 $5,000,000 in any one fiscal year. The bill would require the Controller, in any fiscal year that the division expends less than $10,000,000 for those purposes related to hazardous wells, idle-deserted wells, hazardous facilities, and deserted facilities, to transfer from the Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund to the account an amount equal to the
difference of $10,000,000 and what was expended for those purposes by the division for that fiscal year, unless there is more than $100,000,000 in the account. The bill would also require the Department of Conservation to provide an update on the report to the Legislature annually.