SACRAMENTO – California’s senate has approved AB 1167, a bill a by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo called the Orphan Well Prevention Act, which NRDC and Environment California are sponsoring. The act is designed to intervene before oil wells become “orphaned” without a financially solvent operator, by prohibiting the sale of an idle or marginally-producing well unless the oil industry puts up financial security to pay for the full cost of cleaning it up, a process called plug and abandonment. The bill has to clear a procedural vote in the Assembly before the legislature adjourns on September 14.
Following is a statement from Ann Alexander, a senior attorney at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“The California legislature has been courageous and decisive today in the face of fierce opposition by Big Oil. We are finally on the brink of taking an…