The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for ensuring that the effects on the natural and human environment are considered during the leasing and development of energy and marine mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
To help inform management decisions, BOEM develops, oversees, and funds the collection of environmental and socioeconomic information as directed by the OCS Lands Act through its Environmental Studies Program (ESP). The ESP focuses on applied science, including baseline information and the effects of leasing and development activities conducted under our authority. The ESP’s goals are to establish the information needed to assess, predict, monitor, and manage environmental impacts on marine biota and the human, marine, and coastal environments.
BOEM is beginning to formulate its Fiscal Year 2020-2022 Studies Development Plan covering all BOEM energy and minerals activities, and invites your input in identifying potential study ideas for consideration on Alaska, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific OCS areas. Ideas must be relevant to BOEM’s information requirements in the areas of biological, oceanographic (physical and chemical), traditional knowledge, and social sciences, including economic and cultural research.
Examples of relevant topics and priorities that will facilitate the bureau’s decision-making needs can be found on our National Studies List for Fiscal Year 2019, which identifies studies we intend to procure this fiscal year, subject to funding availability, and regional or program needs. The current Studies Development Plan is online; the Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS) provides access to ongoing studies and completed reports.
Please send your suggestions in a short paragraph to ESP by Thursday, December 20, 2018, and explain why they are important and relevant research areas for BOEM to consider. All submitted ideas become the property of the federal government. While suggestions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, there is no guarantee they will be accepted. Some might be combined with other suggestions. Acceptance of an idea does not imply that the submitter will receive funding.