Latest news with #SenateCommitteeonNaturalResources
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
For legislation to retire water rights, political support is ample. Funding, not so much.
More than 22,500 acre-feet of groundwater were retired under the water rights retirement pilot program — enough to cover annual water usage for about 45,000 homes. After years of setbacks, a program that would authorize the sale and permanent retirement of water rights over the next decade in order to reduce groundwater overuse in the driest state in the union is moving forward. But a sketchy economic outlook and accompanying reduced state revenue estimates means a funding source to implement the program might have to wait. Assembly Bill 104 would establish the Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program, which would allow willing landowners to sell their water rights back to the state through the year 2035. The bill would direct the state engineer to permanently retire those rights from future allocation to address Nevada's dwindling groundwater supply. Last week, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources heard the bill, which will need to pass through the committee by Friday to move forward. The bill passed the Assembly unanimously last month. Legislation to create a voluntary water rights retirement program was first introduced in 2023 by former Republican Sen. Pete Goicoechea, but stalled in the Legislature. For more than a year, lawmakers, conservation groups, mining interests and local water managers worked together to craft the bill's language and ensure its passage, an effort reflected by the bill's bipartisan passage in the Assembly and wide support. 'Establishing a water rights retirement program in statute would be simply a step forward in our state in addressing over-appropriation and over pumping,' said Democratic Assemblymember. Natha Anderson of Sparks, who chairs the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and presented the bill to the Senate panel last week. During the hearing, representatives from several rural counties spoke in support of the measure, including officials in Washoe, Humboldt, Eureka, and Churchill counties. 'It's a really, very well thought out bill that has lots of support, and we just appreciate that this bill is before your committee,' said Jeff Fontaine, representing the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority and Humboldt River Basin Water Authority. Several conservation groups also spoke in support of the legislation, including the Great Basin Water Network, the Walker Basin Conservancy, the Nevada Conservation League, and the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition. Assembly Bill 104 builds on a pilot program launched in 2023 that used a one-time allocation of $25 million in federal funds to purchase groundwater rights from private Nevada landowners in over-pumped and over-appropriated basins. More than 22,500 acre-feet of groundwater were retired under the pilot program — enough to cover annual water usage for about 45,000 homes — at an average cost of just over $1,000 per acre-foot. The pilot program proved more successful than anticipated, attracting offers from water rights holders to sell a total of $65.5 million in rights in a matter of months — about $40 million more than available funding. Despite wide support, the establishment of the voluntary water rights retirement program has faced some difficulties during this year's legislative session. One drawback discussed during the hearing was the lack of any funding to implement the Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program, if passed. A bill with similar language was introduced in the Assembly, but faced challenges due to the addition of a fiscal note as lawmakers face challenging budget cuts. 'While we don't have any money to fill the coffers right now, if we build it, they will come,' said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, which was part of the working group that shaped the bill. 'What we are asking you all to do is, let's build this statutorily. Let's figure out ways to get the money,' he continued. The bill authorizes the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to apply for and accept any gift, donation, grant, federal money, or other source of money for the Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program. If established, the program would be administered by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Groundwater is vital in Nevada, where it supplies about 30% of the state's total water use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In fact, in many rural communities, it's the primary or sole water source for homes, farms, and ecosystems. Prior to the 1960s, Nevada experienced relatively minimal development of groundwater sources. Now significantly more groundwater is extracted than is returned to Nevada's aquifers each year. As a result, more than half of Nevada's 256 groundwater basins are over-appropriated, meaning the volume of water listed in the rights exceeds the amount of actual available water. A little more than half the groundwater withdrawn is used for agriculture with another 30% used for mining operations. Mining and farming representatives agreed Nevada's dwindling groundwater supply is an issue that must be addressed. During the hearing, Doug Busselman, the executive vice president of the Nevada Farm Bureau, spoke in support of the bill. The Nevada Farm Bureau was part of the working group that helped develop the bill. 'Nevada Farm Bureau also has a policy which supports a voluntary purchase of water and retirement to bring basins back into balance,' Busselman said. The Nevada Mining Association was also heavily involved in the creation of the bill, and helped present the bill during the Senate hearing. 'We all know groundwater is a critical resource in Nevada, and it's facing pressures like none before, including an increasing population base in Nevada, climate change and the need for reliable and up to date resource information,' said Alan Biaggi, a representative for the Nevada Mining Association.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Republican effort to set deadlines to plug orphan wells in Texas hits resistance
ODESSA — Abandoned oil wells have become an expensive and growing environmental threat in Texas, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to remediate. Leaders of the oil and gas industry, state regulators and lawmakers, and policy experts agree there is a problem. But they don't agree on the specifics of how to solve it. And an early attempt by a Republican lawmaker hit a major roadblock Wednesday when a Texas Senate panel told him to rethink his approach to solving the problem. State Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston introduced a bill that sets deadlines to plug the more than 150,000 inactive wells in Texas during the next 15 years. It also gives regulators more authority over oil and gas companies to enforce plugging requirements and directs them to submit annual reports. During the hearing, industry leaders said they could comply with Middleton's proposal — at great costs — but suggested additional flexibility. Meanwhile, environmental policy experts and activists said the proposed timeline to plug wells was too lenient. Members of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources were skeptical of both sides of the debate. And they repeatedly questioned whether new deadlines to plug wells would hurt smaller oil and gas operators. ['Should we be worried?': Another well blowout in West Texas has a town smelling of rotten eggs] Middelton defended his bill. He told the committee his proposal considered the financial strains it could put on smaller operators. 'But at the end of the day, we've got way too many inactive wells. What are we going to do about that?' he said. The committee was not convinced by Middleton's assurances. 'There are certainly concerns you heard from (the oil and gas) industry and members of the committee,' said state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, who chairs the committee. 'So I would entertain that you…continue to develop the situation, see what you might put in front of us in the coming weeks that is something we can move forward with.' Inactive wells do not produce oil or natural gas. They are considered 'orphaned' when they have no clear owner or if the company in charge of them is bankrupt. In an annual report detailing its oil field cleanup efforts, the Texas Railroad Commission estimated roughly 8,300, or 5% of all inactive wells, are orphaned. In 2024, the Railroad Commission plugged a little more than a thousand of them, costing taxpayers $34 million. The commission is the state agency tasked with regulating the oil and gas industry and has been charged with overseeing the blowouts. Orphaned wells have become a conduit for water previously used for fracking, typically stored in deep underground rock formations, to burst onto the surface. Left ignored, these wells threaten groundwater resources and public health. The brine that leaks or shoots uncontrolled flows of water upward contains a colorless, odorless, incredibly toxic gas known as Hydrogen Sulfide or H2S. Water has blown through at least eight wells since October 2024, according to ranchers in the West Texas region. Last fall, the commission, in a letter, said it could no longer keep up with the growing cost of plugging them. It asked lawmakers for an additional $100 million just to keep up — about 44% of its entire two-year budget. Under existing law, oil and gas companies can request what the commission calls an extension to lengthen a well's inactive status indefinitely, which means they won't have to plug it. Operators can obtain extensions for individual wells or a blanket renewal for every inactive well in their portfolio. Middleton's bill would change that. Oil and gas companies would be required to plug wells that have been inactive for at least 15 years. The legislation also allows the commission to grant exceptions so long as the operators that request one submit a plan to plug the well. The commission can evaluate different factors, including the number of the operator's inactive wells, how long they've been inactive, and a plan to plug them before deciding. Called compliance plans, operators have until 2040 to fulfill it. The commission can also consider risks to public safety and the environment when evaluating wells that just turned 15. This is not the case under the law now. Industry leaders representing operators statewide mostly assured lawmakers their members could comply. But it would hurt their bottom line. Karr Ingham, an economist and president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, said any bill setting limits would lead to damaging expenses. He said 20-25% of an operator's inventory can consist of inactive wells. 'We want to make sure that this bill is as workable…for our folks as it could be,' he said. Michael Lozano, who leads government affairs and communications for the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, said lawmakers should consider giving operators more time to prepare. Finding companies to plug the wells, he said, could be a challenge for them. Environmental policy experts and landowners said the legislature should give operators shorter time frames to plug inactive and dried-up wells before they become problematic. Virginia Palacios, executive director of Commission Shift Action, a nonprofit group that lobbies at the Capitol for stronger oil and gas industry policies, told The Texas Tribune she was excited a bill had been proposed, adding it needed stronger language. An ideal deadline would give operators 10 years to plug their inactive wells. 'It's sort of like a soft touch on an industry that has been running a Wild West strategy on inactive walls for a long time,' she said. Schuyler Wight, a West Texas rancher whose land is dotted with wells, some of which are leaking, did not support the bill. It is common in West Texas for oil and gas producers to operate on privately owned ranches. Wight said the Railroad Commission should make plans to plug wells public and alert the landowner when an operator conducts testing and if they are following through with plugging. Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, an industry trade group, applauded the bill, saying the group supports it. In an emailed statement, he said $55 million in fees paid by operators are given annually to state-managed plugging programs. He said he does not support shorter time frames to plug the wells because operators need a 'phase-in' period to comply with the law. At the hearing on Wednesday, he appeared confident that operators could bear the brunt of any costs imposed by Middleton's bill. 'It's a duty to landowners, it's a duty to the legislature, and it's a duty to the industry,' Staples said. 'Once these wells have reached beyond that point, they are plugged,' Staples said. Disclosure: Permian Basin Petroleum Association and Texas Alliance of Energy Producers have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
