ACCESS NUMBER: 30808

STUDY TITLE: Assessment of Historical, Social, and Economic Impacts of OCS 

Development on Gulf Coast Communities 

REPORT TITLE: Assessment of Historical, Social, and Economic Impacts of OCS 

Development on Gulf Coast Communities, Volume I: Executive Summary and Volume 

II: Narrative Report 

CONTRACT NUMBER: 1435-01-96-CT-30808 

SPONSORING OCS REGION: Gulf of Mexico 

APPLICABLE PLANNING AREAS: Western, Central, and Eastern 

FISCAL YEARS OF PROJECT FUNDING: 1996, 1997, and 1999 

COMPLETION DATE OF REPORT: June 2001 

COST(S): FY 1996; $484,872; FY 1997; $40,971; FY 1999; $30,956, CUMULATIVE 

PROJECT COST; $556,799 

PROJECT MANAGER: Barbara Wallace 

AFFILIATION: TechLaw, Inc. 

ADDRESS: 4340 East West Highway, Suite 1120, Bethesda, MD 20814 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS*: D. Austin, D. Goldfield, J. Kirkley, T. McGuire, B. 

Wallace 

KEY WORDS: Louisiana; Texas; Alabama; socioeconomic; economic and social 

change; landscapes; work and education; time series analysis; rapid assessment; 

history 

BACKGROUND: This is the second part of a two-phased project to provide a timeseries baseline of the social and economic consequences of OCS development on Gulf 

Coast communities. Phase I of the study entitled, Socioeconomic Baseline Study of the 

Gulf of Mexico Region, was prepared by the Coastal Marine Institute (CMI) at Louisiana 

State University. It is a database of various census and related data sets of more than 

3,000 variables from 1930 to 1990 for the more than 500 counties in Alabama, Florida, 

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The current project, or Phase II of the baseline 

study, examines historical, social, and economic impacts of OCS development on GOM 

selected coastal communities. 

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to enhance the understanding and 

document the relationship between Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) development and the 

economies, communities and households of the GOM region since 1930. 
ACCESS NUMBER: 30808

DESCRIPTION: The study focused on three areas: South Louisiana, Coastal Bend, 

Texas, and Mobile Bay, Alabama. The study areas included five counties or parishes 

and six communities within the counties or parishes. 

South Louisiana Coastal Bend, Texas Mobile Bay, Alabama 

Lafourche Parish 

-- Galliano 

Terrebonne Parish 

 -- Schriever 

San Patricio County 

-- Ingleside 

-- Mathis 

Baldwin County 

-- Gulf Shores 

Mobile County 

-- Theodore 

SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS: While there are similarities across political boundaries 

in the GOM region, there is no one story. The impacts of OCS oil and gas activities 

have varied among the study areas. Direct impacts have been felt most keenly in the 

South Louisiana study area, particularly south Lafourche Parish, an area with strong ties 

to marine resources -- both fish and oil. Direct impacts are evident to a lesser extent in 

San Patricio County. Baldwin and Mobile counties are relative newcomers to coastal 

counties adjacent to oil and gas activities. Impacts in these two counties are less 

evident than in the other study areas. Oil and gas impacts were found to differ within 

the study areas as well as among them. OCS-related activities and regulations were 

not the driver for all that occurred. Federal, non-MMS, policies have driven much of the 

change in the study areas. The similarities across the study areas often relate to the 

national, and non-MMS related, policies. 

STUDY RESULTS: OCS oil and gas activities have been important to the social and 

economic characteristics of the Gulf of Mexico study areas. The level of importance has 

varied over time and with respect to each of the five study counties or parishes. Four 

patterns were identified for Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, and San Patricio 

County: (1) 1969 to 1974 - substantial expansion in economic activity; (2) 1974 to 1981 

- sustained economic growth, with economic activity being even higher than it was 

between 1969 and 1974; (3) 1981 to 1987 - large contraction or downturn in economic 

activity frequently referred to as the bust years; and (4) for all study areas 1987 to 1995 

- recovery from the bust period and modest economic growth. The first three patterns 

do not hold for Mobile and Baldwin counties that had sustained growth. 

The review of the historical, social, and economic landscapes of Gulf Coast 

communities also showed OCS oil and gas activities to have had variable impacts along 

the coast. Direct impacts have been felt most directly in the Louisiana core. Despite its 

history and rhetoric of separatism, the Gulf Coast, like the South, is tied to the Federal 

government by multi stranded cords. The Department of Agriculture mediates the 

agricultural landscape; Defense creates the military landscape; Federal Emergency 

Management Agency subsidizes life on the beach; the National Marine Fisheries 

Service attempts to regulate the maritime landscape; the Army Corps of Engineers 

maintains Mobile Bay and its industry. Some of these federal interventions are more 
ACCESS NUMBER: 30808

welcome locally than others; all of them, and a host of others, have shaped the 

landscape of the Gulf. Global forces also influence the landscapes of the Gulf Coast. 

OCS activity impacted education and work in the period of rapid and extensive 

industrialization that followed World War II, and that industrialization had a dramatic 

influence on education. Differences in the educational and occupational trajectories of 

the six study communities were found to stem from: (1) economic diversification to 

buffer cycles in the dominant industries; (2) proximity to urban and industrial areas to 

which residents can commute to work; (3) the ease of the transition from prewar 

economic activities, such as fishing, to industrial activity, such as servicing offshore oil 

and gas rigs; (4) the diversity of skills and opportunities of individual residents; (5) racial 

and ethnic makeup; and (6) community cohesion which dictated who would and could 

leave and who would or could not. Despite the differences, in all study communities, as 

the level of skill needed in the workforce has increased, particularly due to technological 

changes, the demands placed on educational institutions have also grown. 

 

STUDY PRODUCTS: Wallace, B. J. Kirkley, T. McGuire, D. Austin, and D. Goldfield. 

2001. Assessment of the historical, social, and economic impacts of OCS development 

on Gulf Coast communities; Volume I: Executive Summary. Prepared by TechLaw, 

Inc. OCS Study MMS 2001-026. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Mgmt. Service, 

Gulf of Mexico OCS Region Office, New Orleans, LA. 18 pp. 

Wallace, B. J. Kirkley, T. McGuire, D. Austin, and D. Goldfield. 2001. Assessment of 

the historical, social, and economic impacts of OCS development on Gulf Coast 

communities; Volume II: Narrative Report. Prepared by TechLaw, Inc. OCS Study 

MMS 2001-027. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Mgmt. Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS 

Region Office, New Orleans, LA. 546 pp. 

Assessment of the historical, social, and economic impacts of OCS development on 

Gulf Coast communities: electronic bibliography. 

Assessment of the historical, social, and economic impacts of OCS development on 

Gulf Coast communities: data sets. 

*P.I.’s affiliation may be different than that listed for Project Manager.