Earlier this week, a piece of legislation aimed at prioritizing Pennsylvania workers was advanced by a House committee in Harrisburg.
State Representative Jim Struzzi’s House Bill 2528 was advanced by the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on Tuesday and it’s goal is to allow any Pennsylvania company, regardless of size, to bid for a contract that the DEP will award for plugging oil and gas wells. The bill would also require the DEP to award a contract to an eligible Pennsylvania company before considering the bid of an out-of-state company.
Struzzi said in a news release that the legislation comes after an Indiana County business was denied the opportunity to bid on work to deal with Pennsylvania’s thousands of abandoned wells due to DEP policies. Because of these policies, the majority of well-plugging contracts were outsourced to non-PA companies, which he says “makes absolutely no sense when we have capable companies employing hardworking Pennsylvania residents right here that can do this important work.”
Pennsylvania has between 100,000 to 200,000 abandoned gas and oil wells and he says that “it’s going to take many decades” to remedy all of them at the current pace set by the DEP.
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