Sen. Martin Heinrich Welcomes New Funding for New Mexico to Create Jobs Cleaning up Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, welcomed $43.7 million in the first phase of funding available to New Mexico from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create jobs cleaning up orphaned oil and gas wells across the state.
"Orphan wells are an enormous source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 86 times more potent than CO2. With this new funding we're putting our traditional energy workers to work solving a major climate challenge," said Martin Heinrich.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated a total of $4.7 billion to create a new federal program to address orphan wells. The U.S. Department of the Interior on Monday released the amount of funding that states are eligible to apply for in Phase One, which were determined using the data provided by states that submitted a Notice of Intent (NOI) indicating interest in applying for a formula grant to fund the proper closure and cleanup of orphaned wells and well sites.
About Martin Heinrich
Elected in 2012, Martin Heinrich is a United States Senator for New Mexico. Heinrich serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Armed Services, Intelligence, and Joint Economic Committees. He is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.