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MINOT – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, visited two orphaned well sites outside of Minot with the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources. The two sites are in the process of being plugged and reclaimed by the state with funding from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which included Senator Cramer and Senator Ben Ray Luján’s (D-NM) REGROW Act.
“When Senator Luján and I introduced the REGROW Act, we took a really good idea created by the state of North Dakota and we ran with it. This brilliant idea used federal pandemic assistance dollars to keep oilfield workers employed during an economic downturn using the very skills they've learned from producing oil and put them to reclaiming old abandoned oil wells,” said Senator Cramer. “This is a win-win-win for workers, the environment, and North Dakotans. We can use that land to mine what's underneath it for the good of the economy, our national security and our country, and for the good of society. This land can take on a new purpose, and grow food all over again like it did before an oil well ever existed here.”
“The NDIC is very grateful to Senator Cramer for sponsoring the REGROW section of the IIJA. The well plugging projects funded by his legislation are providing job opportunities for thousands of workers while fast-tracking environmental restoration,” said Lynn Helms, Director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.
Orphaned wells are wells which are no longer in use and according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, are “environmental hazards and jeopardize public health and safety.” Also known as abandoned wells, they can contaminate groundwater, emit noxious gases, limit productive land use, create flooding and sinkhole risks, and can harm wildlife. As of December 2021, there are 131,227 documented orphaned wells and estimates of between 310,000 and 800,000 undocumented orphaned wells.
Background:
Senator Cramer has been a leader in securing federal resources for plugging and remediating orphan wells. The REGROW Act, which Senator Cramer introduced with Senator Ben Ray Luján in 2021, was included in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The IIJA funds support North Dakota’s orphan well program by providing funds to plug orphaned wells and accelerate the associated environmental benefits.
In February, Senator Cramer joined U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) in reintroducing the Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act. The bill invests in research and development efforts to identify, plug, repurpose, and remediate abandoned gas and oil wells.
Last August, Senator Cramer announced the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded an initial $560 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 24 states, including $25 million to North Dakota, to begin work to plug, cap, and reclaim orphaned oil and gas wells.