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 OCS Scientific Committee
1999 Meeting Summary - Social and Economic Planning
Conference Findings and Recommendations
Dr. Rodney Cluck, Sociologist, Environmental Studies Branch, reported that from August
24 through August 26, 1999, 60 social scientists and personnel of the MMS gathered in Park
City, Utah, to discuss the Environmental Studies Program agenda for socioeconomic
research. The task was to review past and ongoing research and identify the issues that
were most pressing. The conference proceedings will be used to guide MMS social science in
research, mitigation and decision making for Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas
development. The conference supported the national and regional studies planning by
defining linkages among study efforts conducted by MMS and developing logical long-term
planning strategies at the regional and national levels.
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| Panel Members (left to right): Tim Holder, Claudia Rodgers, Harry Luton, Jim Lima,
Rodney Cluck |
Three members of the social science subcommittee (Lee Huskey of University of Alaska,
Joanna Endter-Wada of Utah State University, and Stan Albrecht of Utah State University)
offered their observations on the MMS socioeconomic studies program and the conference
proceedings. Having served on the committee since the early nineties, they noted that
higher-level agency support for socioeconomic research had increased considerably during
the decade. They also commended the socioeconomic studies program for its responsiveness
to changes in the oil industry, to the 1992 recommendations of the National Research
Council, to political circumstances in the regions, and to the SC’s own
recommendations.
This session considered the Social and Economic Planning Conference findings and
recommendations as well as specific regional issues raised and what was learned as a
result of the conference.
For more information, contact Julie Reynolds.
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