Meeting U.S. Energy Resource Needs The Energy Resources Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (1999) / Chapter Skim
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4 Future Program Effectiveness and Challenges
4 Future Program Effectiveness and Challenges
Pages 35-48
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From page 35... ...
Superimposed on these natural resource life-cycle evolutionary events are external forces driven by political and environmental concerns such as global climate change. Thus, in the face of the challenge of an expanding domestic and global appetite for energy, increasing dependence on imported oil, and sharply heightened awareness of the need for cleaner energy supply, the ERP should continue to meet the challenge of providing the necessary scientific information for policymakers to use in making informed decisions regarding the wise use of the nation's energy resources, federal land use, and geopolitical relations.
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From page 36... ...
The 1995 national oil and gas resource assessment went beyond conventional resources and included the development of new methodologies to assess unconventional resources particularly the major gas basins, many of which are on public lands. The elucidation of resource issues such as oil and gas reserve growth, the natural gas resource endowment, and the development of methods for assessing coalbed methane resources are important contributions of the ERP to the creation of a better evaluation of the nation's energy resources.
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From page 37... ...
Like the domestic oil and gas subprogram, the primary role of the coal resources subprogram is the assessment of the nation's coal resource endowment. For the purposes of the national coal resource assessment, the nation has been divided into five principal coal-producing regions: (1)
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From page 38... ...
It is the panel' s view that scientists in the coal subprogram and in the oil and gas subprogram should work closely together in these two related resource areas by taking an integrated basin analysis approach to the assessment and study of coal, oil, and gas resources. In the panel's view, the national coal assessment should: · identify and clearly state priorities (e.g., geographic locations, seam depth)
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From page 39... ...
The panel suggests that the ERP should state clearly the limitations on the use of the coal resource data to guard against misuse or misinterpretation when its national coal assessment is prepared. Closer linkages between the coal subprogram and industry, as suggested by the panel, would have several benefits.
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From page 40... ...
Despite modest funding for this subprogram, it has produced valuable assessments of world energy resources dating back to the first USGS analysis completed in 1965. With global demand for oil projected to increase 25 percent over 1995 levels by 2010 (PCAST, 1997)
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From page 41... ...
USGS information policies, standards, and practices are (and must be) consistent with various federal information mandates, laws governing technology transfer, and the North America Resource Assessment (NARA)
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From page 42... ...
. It is intended to make available via the Internet map coverages and data sets that are important for land management and environmental issue strategies related to energy resources.
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From page 44... ...
In addition to digital databases and paper records, the USGS manages physical databases that are relevant to the mission and role of the ERP. The USGS maintains a Core Research Center that is the largest public core repository in the country.
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From page 45... ...
FUTURE PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS AND CHALLENGES 45 · coordination and collaboration between subprograms; · the geographic dispersion of staff, which means that special effort is required to maintain effective links between subprograms (the oil and gas and the coal subprograms have much to learn from each other because the resources being studied often occur in the same basins and formations, and areas such as coalbed methane call for close collaboration) ; · interaction between the ERP and other USGS programs and divisions on data management issues; and · public outreach to make the accomplishments of the ERP more visible to Congress, federal agencies, state and local governments, and the public.
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From page 46... ...
Coal / (41 %) Note: Resource appraisal includes statisticians and other non-geoscience trained professionals whose research is applied primarily to enhance energy resource assessment.
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From page 47... ...
Most of the research staff in the ERP received their first degrees in the 1970s, and there is a sharp and substantial decrease in the number of graduates from the 1980s compared to the 1960s and 1950s. Fully 91 percent a.
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From page 48... ...
The need for careful, thorough, science-based assessment is greater than ever. The need to be prepared for significant energy transitions in the next century means that understanding potential energy resources, in the United States and worldwide, will have great value.
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