SACRAMENTO— A bill that would substantially increase oil companies’ requirements to plug and clean up idled oil and gas wells across the state passed the California Assembly today. California currently has more than 40,000 wells that sit idle, but existing laws do little to force operators to plug these dangerous wells.

The bill from Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) is sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity. It’s backed by more than 100 public health, labor and environmental groups, who sent a letter of support for the bill, which would speed well cleanup, protect communities and the climate, and create tens of thousands of jobs.

“Legislators agree that it’s time to make polluters pay for their dangerous leaking wells,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “This crucial bill will finally force oil companies to start their massive cleanup job and ensure these costs don’t land on the taxpayer.”

Assembly Bill 1866 would require operators to plug a significant portion of their existing idle wells or be subject to penalties. The largest operators would be required to plug 20% of their idle wells per year, while medium and small operators would have to plug 15% and 10% per year, respectively. The law would also eliminate the option to pay an idle well fee, allowed under existing law to avoid plugging requirements.

These requirements would result in the top five operators — California Resources Corporation-Aera, Chevron, Berry Petroleum, Sentinel Peak Resources, and E&B Natural Resources Management Corp — plugging more than 4,200 idle wells in just the first year of the law’s implementation.

Hart’s bill will not only reduce health and environmental threats, but also create thousands of oil industry jobs in communities transitioning away from fossil fuels. A map from the Make Polluters Pay coalition shows more than 24,000 jobs can be created through idle well remediation operations in California.

According to a 2023 report from Sierra Club California, plugging all of California’s onshore oil and gas wells would cost about $23 billion. Yet the oil industry has set aside only $106 million in bonds, according to an analysis by Carbon Tracker.

Oil companies that have declared bankruptcy have walked away from their legal cleanup obligations and left taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars. As the oil industry declines, the threat that companies will weaponize the bankruptcy process to escape cleanup responsibilities will increase.

Idle wells pose a grave threat to public health, the environment, and the climate. Dozens of idle wells in Kern County were discovered to be leaking methane in residential neighborhoods — some at concentrations high enough to be explosive.

By one estimate, about two-thirds of unplugged oil and gas wells in California are leaking methane — a climate super-pollutant over 80 times more climate-heating than carbon dioxide over the short term. Wells that leak methane likely also leak other dangerous air pollutants like benzene and other volatile organic compounds. Idle wells can also act as pathways for contaminants to move into groundwater, especially as wells get older.

The bill now goes to the California Senate and if passed will move to the governor to sign into law.