LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK OF OFFSHORE ENERGY RESOURCES – SCIENCE AND SENSE IN THE MAKING OF PUBLIC POLICY

State policy makers face a dilemma – developing and implementing sensible energy policy in an environment of often competing economic, environmental, and political concerns. In the case of offshore energy, the process is further complicated by federal ownership and regulation. Due to the slow pace of the federal leasing process, the consideration of resource development can occur through transitions of administrations at both state and federal levels, often with radical changes in resource management policy. Using Virginia as an example, this paper reviews the development of one state’s offshore energy policy from legislative study, to statutory enactment, to application of the policy in the federal lease sale planning process. Throughout the process, both state and federal policy makers relied on the best available geosciences information for assessing potentially available energy resources. Geoscientists called upon to act in an advisory capacity must take seriously their role in the legal, regulatory and policy environment that will control the way in which these resources are ultimately developed.