This article is part of our President’s FY2024 Budget Request Coverage. Visit our Rolling Analysis Page for more.

The FY2024 President’s budget requested $311 million to remediate orphaned oil and gas wells and reclaim abandoned mine lands on federal and non-federal lands, down from the $321 million requested in FY2023. The budget recognizes the reality that the vast number of orphaned oil and gas drilling projects left behind on federal lands create significant liabilities for communities and taxpayers and must be addressed. However, these costs cannot be shouldered by taxpayers alone.  TCS has repeatedly called for the Bureau of Land Management to update their outdated bonding requirements to ensure that taxpayers aren’t left footing the bill when oil and gas companies leave behind a mess.  

The budget request comes on top of the money that were already allocated for well cleanup in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, P.L. 177-58). The IIJA authorized $19 billion in total for orphaned well and abandoned mine cleanup, $16 billion of which was appropriated. More specifically, the bill: 

• Authorized and appropriated $4.7 billion for orphaned well reclamation 
• Authorized and appropriated $11.3 billion for Abandoned Coal Mine Reclamation Fund 
• Authorized (but did not appropriate) $3 billion for abandoned hardrock mine reclamation