OCS Resource Management and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Abstract Can production and consumption of hydrocarbon energy from offshore sources be considered as contributing to sustainable development? What's more, can an agency with the responsibility of managing offshore resource development do so in a way that supports the concept of sustainability? This paper will outline an affirmative response to both of these questions and discuss the reasoning and goals inherent in this position. The Offshore Minerals Management Program of the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) is responsible for the safe and environmentally sound leasing, development, and production of OCS oil, gas, and minerals. The concepts of environmental sustainability, as well as economic and social sustainability, will be presented with a view to describing a coordinated approach to overall sustainable development. The paper concludes that the use of an exhaustible resource, such as hydrocarbons, can be considered sustainable if economic and social gains balance the lost resource, and the environment is protected. The paper focuses on what the MMS can do, and is doing, as a resource manager to promote sustainable development within its authority and mandate. This is an effort to "think globally and act locally," which has been advocated by many as an ideal individual contribution to meeting the challenge of sustainable development.