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Prepared Statement of Charles S. Colgan 



My name is Charles S. Colgan, and I am Senior Economist with 

 the Maine State Planning Office. I am also Director of Maine's 

 OCS Policy and Program efforts, a position I have held for six 

 years . 



It is no secret that OCS oil and gas exploration on Georges 

 Bank has been a highly controversial issue, and the Georges Bank 

 Biological Task Force (BTF) has often been at the center of those 

 controversial issues. 



This hearing is a timely opportunity to review the 

 experience we have had with OCS oil and gas activity in the North 

 Atlantic, and the part which the Biological Task Force has played 

 in managing that activity. The first phase of oil and gas 

 exploration on Georges Bank has been completed, along with the 

 first full year of the monitoring program recommended by the BTF. 

 We face leasing in new areas of the North Atlantic in the near 

 future, and the possibility of development and production 

 operations resulting from exploratory activities to come. 



I would like to express my appreciation to Chairman D' Amours 

 for providing the opportunity to conduct that review. 



For my part, I would like to review the succeses and the 

 problems which we in Maine have perceived as regular, although 

 non-voting, participants in the Task Force's efforts. Let me 

 begin with the successes, which have been numerous and 

 substantial . 



To appreciate those successes, it is necessary to measure 

 the performance of the Task Force against the goals which the 

 Task Force was created to meet. The goals to which I refer are 

 not the Task Force's functions described in the Charter, but 

 rather the underlying purposes of the BTF, some of which were 

 present from the circumstances surrounding the creation of the 

 task force, and others of which grew as the Task Force began its 

 work . 



In the begining that Task Force had two major purposes. The 



