U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

MMS Issues Draft Sustainable Development Report

        The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service has issued a report on OCS Resource Management and Sustainable Development, which discusses the concept of sustainable development and analyzes the aspects of sustainable development within the MMS offshore program. The document is available on the MMS website at www.mms.gov under What’s New.

        President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development was established to develop a strategy for sustainable development in the U.S. Sustainable development is an evolving approach that promotes the integrated use of human, natural, and financial resources to improve the economy, the environment, and society for the benefit of current and future generations.

        The production and consumption of energy comprise one of the fundamental components of economic development and societal well-being. However, development and use of fossil fuels deplete nonrenewable natural resources. Furthermore, they can entail costs on society, both environmental (e.g., in terms of air and water quality) and social (e.g., in terms of socioeconomic impacts of development on local communities). Therefore, any discussion of sustainable development should consider initiatives in the energy sector. The MMS report is about the Offshore Minerals Management Program’s efforts to foster a more sustainable future.

        MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf; and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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