A bill authored by State Representative Jim Struzzi received endorsement from the State House earlier today.
House Bill 2528 – which allows Pennsylvania companies to bid for contract awards from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for plugging oil and gas wells – now moves on to the Senate after garnering bipartisan support from the state House. The Bill would also require the DEP to award a contract to in-state companies, regardless of size, before considering to an out-of-state company.
The legislation was created 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.”
Struzzi said in a news release that the state will received $400 million from the federal government to address more than 200,000 orphaned wells across Pennsylvania, and he said that House Bill 2528 does not rule out the DEP outsourcing contracts as long as they cannot find an in-state qualifier first.
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