Southeast US

Texas, U.S.

Since 2016, I have been exploring how the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is implemented to assess the socioeconomic impacts of oil and gas and other offshore activities. Funded by the National Academies, I led a study until 2020 that sought to propose a standardized framework for assessing the combined impacts of offshore and extractive activities with climate change and extreme events.

The project included the systematic analysis of previous assessment tools, post-BP studies, interviews with relevant stakeholders, and surveying 440 coastal residents from Texas and Louisiana. Results from my research indicate that 1) the most significant number of studies post-BP or any other recent spill in the U.S. have concentrated on the sequelae associated with mental health and measuring these only in a few parishes in Mississippi and Louisiana; 2) there are no long-term studies that evaluate consistently what many of these extractive activities imply for populations close to refineries (i.e., Texas) or that prioritize other dimensions of community resilience beyond mental health or infrastructure status. Findings underscore the difficulties inherent in living with the oil industry and the paradox of development (environmental degradation and economic growth). Discourses regarding equity (access to health care or loans) and the inevitability of future disasters due to climate change become paramount.