OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 1373, also known as the Commercial Solar Facility Decommissioning Act, in a 94-0 vote Monday. The bill, authored by Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, now moves to the Senate for consideration.
HB1373 would establish critical statutory protections for landowners hosting industrial solar facilities by ensuring that solar companies are held accountable for decommissioning responsibilities. Currently, Oklahoma lacks regulations governing the removal of solar infrastructure if a company goes out of business or if a company decides not to decommission the solar facility in a timely manner once it ends production.
“This bill would make sure that landowners are not left with the financial and logistical challenges of decommissioning solar facilities,” Boles said.
This bill would also introduce new requirements that solar companies must follow such as requiring financial assurance to the landowner that must be at least equal to the estimated amount by which the cost or removing the solar power facilities from the landowner's property and restoring the property to as near as reasonably possible the condition of the property prior to the solar facility installation on the property.
Provisions of HB1373 would include requiring solar facility agreements to outline detailed decommissioning plans and ensure land is restored to a tillable state after facility removal. The bill outlines financial assurances from operators to cover removal and land restoration costs, would place responsibility for these expenses on facility operators rather than landowners, and would prohibit contractual provisions that exempt operators from their decommissioning obligations.
HB1373 previously passed the House Energy Committee and the Energy & Natural Resources Oversight Committee unanimously before securing full House approval.
The measure will now advance to the Oklahoma Senate for further consideration. If passed and signed into law, the bill would take effect on Nov. 1.