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The Economic Effects of Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Exploration and Developement in the South Atlantic Region: Issues and Assessment
Get PDFIn 2013, the American Petroleum Institute and the National Ocean Industries Association, oil and gas industry groups, commissioned Quest Offshore Resources, Inc., to prepare a report (the Quest report) on the economic impacts of offshore drilling in the Atlantic. This report has been widely cited to make the case for opening the Southeast to oil and gas development based on significant local, state, and regional benefits from drilling.
The report, however, was based on an incomplete and misleading economic picture, which resulted in overstating the likely regional economic effects of offshore oil and gas exploration and development.
This summary identifies issues with the Quest report that lead to significant overestimates of the economic impacts of offshore drilling in the Atlantic and provides an overview of the existing ocean economy of the South Atlantic region in order to provide the context of the industries that could be vulnerable to disruptions from oil and gas activity.
For purposes of this assessment, the region of interest consists of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia and is designated as the “South Atlantic” region. In Department of the Interior planning, Virginia and North Carolina are included in the “Mid-Atlantic” planning region, while South Carolina and Georgia are in the “South Atlantic.” In this assessment, however, all four states will be referred to as falling within the South Atlantic region.
Key Findings
• The existing ocean economy in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia accounted for 249,000 jobs in 2012 and is thus larger than the Quest estimates for oil and gas employment in 2035, which as noted appear to be exaggerated.
• Employment in sectors that have been vulnerable to disruption from oil and gas development is significant in the region.
• The Quest report was prepared before the Department of the Interior released its leasing proposal in 2015, and is therefore based on scenarios that assume significantly more leasing in the near term than will actually be undertaken in the Department of Interior’s still preliminary plans.
– The report assumes that lease sales will be held annually beginning in 2018, but the Dept. of the Interior has proposed only one lease sale, to be held in 2021. – The report assumes that production will begin in 2026, but production would likely not begin until at least 2029 under the actual proposal. – The report assumes that Atlantic drilling can take place in all federal waters, but the Department of the Interior is proposing to limit oil and gas activity to areas of the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and has proposed a 50-mile buffer from the coastline within which drilling would be prohibited.
• Employment estimates in the Quest report are likely exaggerated. It is unclear, for example, how much of the projected employment will be filled by residents outside the South Atlantic region.
• The Quest report fails to disclose key assumptions about the location of support activities such as equipment manufacturing and does not distinguish between oil- and gas-related economic activities taking place in the South Atlantic and those based outside the region.
• The Quest report examines the impacts if Atlantic coast states were to receive revenue sharing from the federal government, as Gulf of Mexico states do, but it fails to acknowledge the long history of difficulty of establishing revenue sharing in Congress
South Korean Seafood Market
No full textSeafood provides a large part of people\u27s food worldwide and contributes much to local economies. But international fishing pressures threaten ocean ecosystems. Nonmarket values and subsidies play a significant role in the equation. Photo courtesy of Jeffery Adkins.https://cbe.miis.edu/homepage_carousel/1023/thumbnail.jp
Año Nuevo State Park, California
No full textAno Nuevo State Park, California provides economic support to the state via tourist visits. Photo: Michael Vincent McGinnis, 2014.https://cbe.miis.edu/homepage_carousel/1019/thumbnail.jp
Complex Marine Economy in U.S. Harbors
No full textTugboats, cargo ships, cruise ships, and recreational tour boats all contribute to a very diverse marine economy, playing a critical role in assisting with the flow of commerce in our nation’s ports and harbors. Photo courtesy of Charles Colgan.https://cbe.miis.edu/homepage_carousel/1021/thumbnail.jp
Virginia Beach
No full textVirginia is among top ten beach nourishment states by expenditure in the U.S. Over four-fifths of funding comes from the federal government. (NOEP, 2014)https://cbe.miis.edu/homepage_carousel/1008/thumbnail.jp
The Gap between Science and Policy: Assessing the Use of Nonmarket Valuation in Estuarine Management
Get PDFEstuaries, which are among the most productive natural systems on earth, provide an array of human welfare benefits if well managed. Non-market valuation (NMV) is considered a powerful tool, which can contribute to informed policies for estuarine management. More than 30 year of research valuing estuaries around the world does not appear to have had a major impact on estuarine management. Published examples of policy applications using estimates from these studies, are rare, leading to the question whether the effort and money spent on this research has been useful and worth the cost.
Despite raising public awareness of the importance of estuaries, NMV should play a wider and more influential role in estuarine management. Our research assumes there is a gap between economic studies and their use in policy decisions. We identify the gap, address the size of the gap, and reasons for it. Our research also seeks to understand the reasons why these values are not used more in the decision making process.
In this paper, we review current literature, and report on a survey of key personnel from two US agencies, NOAA and EPA, that oversee estuaries and sanctuaries, and we will summarize their observations regarding why there is a gap. As an emerging field for many around the world, NMV is receiving increasing attention in China where estuarine resources are threatened by a multitude of human activities. We explore how and whether China can draw lessons from the US cases we have studied and what benefits China can expect from doing NMV studies and encouraging their results be used in Chinese estuarine management
Economic Impact of the Commercial Fisheries on Local County Economies from Catch in All California National Marine Sanctuaries 2010, 2011 and 2012
Get PDFThis report estimates the economic impact of commercial fishing within all California National Marine Sanctuaries (CA NMS) according to the California Ocean Fish Harvester Economic Model (COFHE). The methodology applies county multipliers to estimates of harvest revenue from CA NMS in order to calculate output, income, value added and employment. This report also describes a profile of the commercial fish industry in the CA NMS. CA NMS includes all existing National Marine Sanctuary sites in California: Channel Islands (CINMS), Monterey Bay (MBNMS), Cordell Bank (CBNMS) and Gulf of the Farallones (GFNMS).
The three-year average for 2010 to 2012 finds that landings of commercial fish catch from CA NMS generated over 114 million in output, 69.8 million in total income and 1,841 full- and part-time jobs across 15 counties. Consequently, almost one third of all CA commercial fish catch comes from CA NMS. During the study period harvest revenue demonstrated a consistent decline from almost 64.9 million in 2012. In 2012 the top five species/species groups caught in CA NMS were Dungeness crab, Squid, Salmon, Urchin and Groundfish. These top five species/species groups accounted for almost 86% of all CA NMS landings in 2012. In 2012 the top four ports where catch from the CA NMS was landed were Princeton-Half Moon, San Francisco, Moss Landing and Santa Barbara Harbor. Dependency on the sanctuaries for total port landings varied, ranging from a high of over 96% at Princeton Half-Moon to a low of almost 60% at San Francisco. In addition, the largest numbers of vessels in CA NMS were out of the San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Barbara Harbor port complexes
Pacific Grove, CA
No full textUse of non-native plant species to stabilize beaches is common in California. Photo courtesy of Charles Colgan.https://cbe.miis.edu/homepage_carousel/1010/thumbnail.jp
Algal Bloom on China\u27s Coasts
No full textAn algae bloom, or “green tide,” has clogged nearly 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) of the Yellow Sea. Such massive blooms require waters rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, which originate in fertilizers and are carried to the coasts by water runoff. Photo courtesy of Pix Grove.https://cbe.miis.edu/homepage_carousel/1022/thumbnail.jp