1 DAY 1- -TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1989 



2 MORNING SESSION 

 3 



4 WELCOMING REMARKS--DR. DONALD AURAND, MR. JAMES LANE 



5 



6 DR. AURAND: Good morning. My name is Don Aurand, I am chief of 



7 the Environmental Studies Branch in MMS headquarters. Jim Lane and I 



8 are going to do some introductory remarks here this morning to get this 



9 thing started. 



10 First of all, I would like to welcome you all and tell you that we 



11 have great optimism about the outcome of this, and I hope that it will 



12 turn out to be a good meeting for all of you, as well as for MMS. 



13 The role of my branch in the studies program is that of program 



14 oversight. In the course of discussions with the Atlantic Region 



15 several years ago, we came up with the idea for this workshop. 



16 What I'd like to do this morning is take just a few minutes of 



17 your time to explain what the studies program is all about, what this 



18 workshop means in terms of the studies program and how it fits into 



19 that, and then a little bit about what we hope to accomplish and why we 



20 came up with the idea for doing this workshop. 



21 First of all, the main purpose of the workshop is not 



22 necessarily--although we'd love it if it did--to change anyone's opinion 



23 or to come up with any incredible new insight into how MMS manages this 



24 program. 



25 The purpose of the workshop is to provide information on what we 



26 consider to be a major issue in the North Atlantic, for use by all the 



27 participants in the decision-making process, not just the Department of 



28 Interior or the Minerals Management Service, but the States and 



29 concerned scientists as well, so that we can continue to have a 



30 meaningful dialogue on the entire issue of oil and gas development in 



31 the North Atlantic area. 



32 This is a new approach, if you will, from the Studies Program. It 



33 came up somewhere between a year and two years ago, when in discussions 



34 on planning out our programs, the issue of whether or not we should do 



