Complexities of offshore oil and gas

Complexities of Off Shore Oil and Gas Program is the topic of noontime presentation

By: Cheryl Wright Nov 15, 2005

UAA's Complex Systems Group will host a brown bag lunch on Friday, November 18, at noon in UAA's Consortium Library Room 307. Mr. Paul Stang, Dr. Lisa Rotterman and Dr. Dee Williams of the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service Alaska Region will discuss some of the complex issues facing the Offshore Oil and Gas Program. The presentation is free and open to the public. Please feel free to forward this invitation to your colleagues. Parking is complimentary on the UAA Campus on Friday, with the exception of the Parking Garage, which charges $1.00 per hour.

Mr. Stang will first briefly describe the management objectives of the program and the complex nature and diversity of the issues (political, public, environmental, economic, social, etc.) that influence the program. He will describe how MMS and DOI make management decisions in light of these issues, then Drs. Rotterman and Williams will provide examples of this complexity as it pertains to marine mammals and social systems:

1. Implementing MMS’s mission presents complexity and challenges to the evaluation and mitigation of the potential impacts on marine mammals. These analyses and the related decisions operate in an atmosphere of high public and regulatory scrutiny. Analyses are reiterative, with substantial consultation with other agencies and often with considerable stakeholder input. Areas of uncertainty must be explicitly acknowledged in analysis prepared for management consideration.

2. Multiple and dynamic social processes also influence agency/stakeholder interactions related to oil development in the Beaufort Sea. The presentation will touch on a few of the many practical aspects that arise in the pursuit of social impact assessment and stakeholder involvement. The real-world encounters that emerge at the interface between a federal bureaucracy and social systems raise stimulating topics on methods of social research.

Paul Stang became MMS’s Regional Supervisor for Leasing and Environment in Alaska in 1997 after 30 years in DC. From 1984-97, he held various management positions in MMS HQ after seven years as a policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Interior. From 1972-77, he served in the coastal zone management and marine ecosystem analysis offices in NOAA. Mr. Stang started his federal career with the Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Project in 1967. He has a BA in Arts and Letters and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Penn State and an MS in Ocean Engineering from the University of Miami/Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Dr. Dee Williams earned a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Columbia University, with specialization in human ecology and economic development. He has worked internationally throughout the Pacific Rim on issues of resource management and culture change among subsistence-oriented minority populations. He has published a book and many scholarly articles on the topics of land tenure, environmental perception, and local effects of modernization processes. In 2003, he moved to Anchorage to join the Environmental Studies Program of the Minerals Management Service.

Dr. Lisa Rotterman received her Ph.D. in 1992 from the Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota with a minor in Population and Quantitative Genetics and Cell Biology. She has over two decades of diverse experience in the areas of marine mammal research, management and policy in Alaska and has authored or coauthored many papers and reports on the subject. Dr. Rotterman has served as the wildlife biologist responsible for Endangered Species and MMPA-related consultation and assessment for the Alaska Region of the Minerals Management Service from 2002 through to the present.