433 



the Federal Government doing the drilling, if we are going to swap 

 roles. 



Mr. Danenberger. They do the testing in some situations under 

 very strict guidelines and close scrutiny, I can assure you of that. 



Mr. D' Amours. But the bottom line is, you cannot give me any 

 standard upon which the Department of the Interior would make a 

 determination that it is not worth risking an extremely fragile eco- 

 system. 



Mr. Danenberger. Well, I am thinking in terms of the Atlantic, 

 and there are some areas in the Atlantic that are easier for explo- 

 ration than others. My only point is that during the exploration 

 phase the risks are felt to be low enough that under most circum- 

 stances exploratory drilling can go ahead. 



Mr. D' Amours. Isn't that somewhat prejudging the monitoring 

 that is going on in lease sale 42. If you are so certain of that, why 

 not take all of that monitoring equipment off of 42? 



Mr. Danenberger. I think the program for sale 42 was set up for 

 years and years of operation, and there is still a lot of uncertainty. 

 There are a lot of wells drilled over the years, a lot of oil and gas 

 activities in an area, and there is still a lot of concern as to what 

 the chronic effects might be. 



Georges Bank didn't prove to be a good testing ground for long- 

 term study, because of the poor results in the initial drilling. 



Mr. D' Amours. One further question of you, Mr. Danenberger. 

 That is, on page 12 of your testimony you state that new data has 

 revealed an "increased risk" associated with specific deep water 

 sites. Would you elaborate on that? 



Mr. Danenberger. That is from a resource standpoint. I believe 

 that is the point you are referring to. That there is greater risk 

 from the standpoint of an operator that is going out to drill. There 

 is a lesser likelihood that he would make a commercial discovery. 

 So that relates to the risk that is assumed by the lessee. 



Mr. D' Amours. You are talking about financial risk? 



Mr. Danenberger. Right. Lower probability of making a com- 

 mercial discovery. 



Mr. D' Amours. How long, Mr. Danenberger, have you been with 

 the Department of Interior? 



Mr. Danenberger. Since 1971. 



Mr. D' Amours. You have seen a lot of changes, haven't you? 



Mr. Danenberger. Indeed. 



Mr. D' Amours. Well, OK. 



Before we terminate, Mr. Beller, on this entire area of balancing 

 risks which Congress intended the Federal bureaucracies, to do 

 before it granted leases and the like, and the difficulty of applying 

 any standard to make leasing decisions as I have discussed with 

 Mr. Danenberger, do you have any comments on that? 



Can you advise Congress as to what they might do? Perhaps, 

 even though you are reticent to do so, advise DOI as to what they 

 might be doing to be a little more careful about balancing environ- 

 mental risk and being a little less thoughtful of economic risk? 



Mr. Beller. Let me take that question first of all from a techni- 

 cal point of view, and that is insofar as the biological task force is 

 concerned, we come into the picture after it has already been decid- 

 ed to drill. We have no — nothing to say about that. 



