Energy Bill Creates New Worker Health Fund, Paid for by Oil Company Executive Salaries

The newly proposed Energy Workers Health Improvement and Compensation Fund Act is setting up a dedicated savings account in the U.S. Treasury, paid for entirely by oil companies, to cover specific medical costs for energy workers and their families. This isn’t a new tax on gas at the pump; it’s a targeted contribution based on how much the top brass at oil companies are paid.

The Executive Salary Contribution

Here’s the most interesting part: every oil company—defined as those making over $50 million in revenue—must contribute an annual amount equal to the combined salaries of their ten highest-paid employees (Section 2). Think of it as a mandatory, non-deductible fee calculated on executive pay. If a company underpays that required amount by more than 2%, they get hit with a 10% penalty on the shortfall, which also goes straight into the fund. And for the bean counters out there: these mandatory payments are explicitly not tax-deductible under federal law (Section 2(d)), meaning companies can’t write them off as a business expense.

Who Gets Paid and What It Covers

This new fund pays out reimbursements for medical expenses related to specific health issues: asthma, heat-related illnesses, and other heart or lung diseases linked to environmental factors like methane leaks, heavy smog, or volatile organic compounds (Section 3). The Secretary of Labor gets to decide which other heart and lung issues qualify, after checking with OSHA. The eligibility rules are tight: you must have worked at or lived within 20 miles of an oil/gas site for at least one year. Family members (spouse, child, parent) also qualify if they meet the one-year, 20-mile residency requirement (Section 6). For a parent living 30 miles away, or a contractor who only worked on-site for nine months, this fund won't help.

The Race to Get Reimbursed

While the fund aims to help those suffering, there’s a big catch in how claims are processed. The bill mandates that claims must be paid out in the exact order they are received (Section 3(b)). This “first-come, first-served” rule means if the fund runs low, later claimants—even if they are perfectly eligible—could be left waiting with unpaid medical bills. This structure incentivizes people to file claims immediately, which could lead to the fund getting depleted quickly, turning it into a lottery for reimbursement rather than a guaranteed safety net.

Studying the Problem

Beyond the money, the bill establishes a new Commission on Health Outcomes of Oil and Gas Workers (Section 4). This group, which must include representatives from federal agencies (HHS, NIH, OSHA) and, crucially, actual workers from six key oil states (Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Texas), will study the health impacts and recommend improvements to the Secretary of Labor within 18 months. This ensures that the people most affected—the workers themselves—have a seat at the table when discussing solutions. The Secretary of Labor also gets significant power here, gaining immediate authority to spend the fund's money without needing further annual approval from Congress (Section 2(e)).