Branch of Environmental Sciences (BES)

The BES provides policy guidance, program direction, and national-level coordination with research managers within the Department of the Interior, other Federal Agencies and coordinating committees, and non-federal research organizations.

Essential Functions

  Environmental Studies Program. Oversight of environmental and socioeconomic research in the Alaska, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) areas.

  Oil Spill Modeling Program. Estimation of the oil-spill risks associated with offshore production, addressing the likelihood of spill occurrence, and the transport and fate of spilled oil. The BOEMRE Oil-Spill Risk Analysis (OSRA) model combines the probability of spill occurrence with a statistical description of hypothetical oil-spill movement on the ocean surface.

  Technical information and analyses for NEPA and OCSLA reports, and proposed legislation and regulations that may affect OCS activities.

        Program policy and budget information and analyses.