Offshore Leasing Standards and Accountability Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill creates a "fitness to operate" certification that companies must pass before they can get new offshore oil and gas leases. Companies must show a clean 10-year safety record, investment-grade credit ratings, no bankruptcy filings in the past decade, and enough money to cover all cleanup costs.
• Companies must pay into government-managed escrow accounts to cover future cleanup and decommissioning costs. These accounts must be fully funded within five years, and companies must make an upfront payment of at least 25% of estimated decommissioning costs before a lease is even issued.
• The government would check companies every year to make sure they still meet the standards. If a company falls out of compliance, the Secretary can suspend their lease, issue fines, require extra financial guarantees, or order them to start decommissioning immediately.
• Wells left temporarily abandoned would be limited to three years, with a possible one-time extension to five years. This targets the problem of companies leaving old wells idle for long periods without properly plugging and cleaning them up.
• The bill authorizes $30 million per year from 2027 through 2031 for the Department of the Interior to implement the new fitness-to-operate standards and oversight requirements.