Hill Heat

On Thursday, October 14, 2021, at 12:00 pm EDT, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will host a remote oversight hearing titled, “Impacts of Abandoned Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure and the Need for Stronger Federal Oversight.”

As the April GAO report and Huntington Beach spill make clear, offshore oil and gas infrastructure—including active and abandoned pipelines, wells, platforms, and other equipment—pose serious risks to coastal communities and wildlife. Abandoned infrastructure, including old pipelines left on the seafloor, can pose environmental, fishing, and navigation hazards and create obstructions that potentially result in taxpayers paying for cleanup and removal costs. In late August, Hurricane Ida tore through the Gulf region, causing multiple oil leaks from aging energy infrastructure, including abandoned pipelines.

“The oil and gas industry has ignored public health and the environment for decades, and what’s happening in Huntington Beach today will keep happening to more American communities until Congress steps in,” Grijalva said. “As long as the industry is given a free hand to operate with impunity and dodge responsibility for the mess they cause and leave behind, there will be more disasters. This Committee is moving quickly to protect our coastlines and the communities that rely on them by setting the standards the industry refuses to set for itself.”