Two Nicholas School Faculty Appointed to State Subcommittee on Offshore Energy Exploration

Contact: Tim Lucas, 919-681-8084, tdlucas@duke.edu

March 4, 2009

DURHAM, N.C. – Two faculty members at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University have been appointed to the North Carolina General Assembly’s Legislative Research Committee’s new Advisory Subcommittee on Offshore Energy Exploration.

Michael K. Orbach, professor of the practice of marine affairs and policy, and Jeffrey D. Warren, adjunct assistant professor of marine science and conservation, have been appointed to the subcommittee, which is charged with studying the implications of leasing federal waters off North Carolina's coast in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf to energy companies for oil and natural gas exploration.

As part of their duties, Orbach, Warren and the 22 other members of the subcommittee will review relevant federal law to determine the legal authority of the State of North Carolina with regard to offshore drilling. They will study the potential impacts of offshore exploration and drilling on the nation’s energy supply, as well as its potential environmental impacts on the N.C. coast and its potential financial impacts on North Carolina’s coastal economy, particularly the tourism and commercial fishing industries.

The subcommittee will present its final report to the General Assembly by May 1.

Orbach, a cultural anthropologist based at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., is an expert on coastal and marine management. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and has served as a scientific expert on numerous state and federal advisory commissions and boards, including both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission. From 1985-95 Orbach Chaired the Governor’s Marine Science Council, which advised the Governor on offshore oil issues, under both Governors Martin and Hunt, and he was a member of the Congressionally mandated Environmental Science Review Panel which reviewed the proposal by a consortium of oil companies led by Mobil Oil to drill exploratory wells near Cape Hatteras.

Warren, a coastal hazards specialist with the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, is an expert in science policy and marine geology. He has published and presented widely on coastal management issues including beach nourishment, inlet migration, shoreline erosion, sea level rise, and offshore energy policy. Prior to advising the state on coastal and energy policy issues, Warren worked for Phillips Petroleum Company as a development geologist drilling and evaluating natural gas production in eastern Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

The 24 members of the Subcommittee on Offshore Energy Exploration were appointed by Marc Basnight, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and Joe Hackney, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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