U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

ALASKA REGIONAL DIRECTOR POST FILLED

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced today that John T. Goll will serve as the Regional Director of the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Office. "I'm confident that John Goll will do a superlative job as he brings to this position a wealth of environmental experience that will serve the Region and the mission of the agency well," said MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman. "He will be a valuable asset to our management team, and I look forward to working with him as we address offshore issues in Alaska."

His assignment will begin in May. Goll previously served as the acting regional director from July through October 1996, as part of a rotational assignment initiative.

A career federal employee, Goll has been an environmental scientist in the Offshore Energy and Minerals Management program of the MMS since 1982. Most recently, he has been responsible for overseeing the agency's environmental program, including its environmental studies' program, environmental impact statement preparation, environmental review of industry operations, and the oil spill modeling program. He has been closely involved with the National Research Council committee which reviewed MMS's environmental studies program, and he has represented MMS on the NRC Ocean Studies Board project on improving the use of science in decision making for coastal issues. In 1994, Goll led an MMS team to northwest Siberia to work with Russian environmental managers on oil and gas issues in the northern Ob River region. Goll has also been working with a subcommittee of State representatives and scientists of MMS's OCS advisory board reviewing environmental information needs for OCS areas that have been subject to past moratoria.

Prior to joining the MMS, Goll was an environmental scientist with U.S. Geological Survey (1980-1982) where he was one of the principal authors of the outer continental shelf air quality rules. Before that, he worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1974-1980), and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, as a meteorologist evaluating potential sites for nuclear power plants, air quality, and environment-related plant structure design.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Goll attended the University of Michigan, receiving a B.S. in Meteorology and Oceanography in 1970. He received a Master's Degree with an emphasis in air pollution and meteorology in 1972, and served in the U.S. Army from 1972-1974.

The MMS is the federal agency that manages and regulates the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf, and collects, verifies, and disburses about $4 billion each year in revenues from offshore federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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