GM-17-11 Mini-SOW _Final.docx

DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF WORK

Support for Streamlining Socioeconomic Impact Assessments of Offshore Energy Development in the Gulf of Mexico Region The Environmental Studies Program (ESP) of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is offering a cooperative agreement opportunity to conduct research to develop tools for streamlining impact assessments in the Gulf of Mexico Region (GOMR). The mission of BOEM is to manage the exploration and development of the nation’s offshore resources in a way that appropriately balances economic development, energy independence and environmental protection through oil and gas leases, renewable energy development. The decision-making behind the management of the nation’s offshore resources is supported through environmental reviews and associated studies.

AUTHORITIES

Section 1346 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) mandates the conduct of environmental and socioeconomic studies needed for the assessment and management of environmental impacts on the human, marine, and coastal environments which may be affected by oil and gas or other mineral development. OCSLA Section 1345 authorizes the use of cooperative agreements with affected States to meet the requirements of OCSLA, including sharing of information and joint utilization of available expertise to carry out applicable Federal and State laws, regulations, and stipulations relevant to outer continental shelf operations both onshore and offshore. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is the federal agency established to conduct Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease sales and to assess the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of OCS activities.

BACKGROUND

The petroleum industry as a whole in the Gulf of Mexico Region (GOMR) has matured over several decades and is well-developed, expansive, extensive, and deeply intertwined in the regional communities and economies of the coastal states. Since the late 1990’s, the offshore oil and gas industry has been changing rapidly, often in unanticipated directions, including: the removal of the Oil Export Ban, development of new facilities to export oil and liquid natural gas, rapid changes in the international business climate, business practices, industry reorganizations, mergers and outsourcing, advances in technology and control systems, and significant energy market shifts in response to in the customary and often volatile fluctuations in oil and gas prices. As a consequence, the onshore social and economic impacts of offshore energy development are also changing, intensifying the concerns of coastal states.

PURPOSE

BOEM designed this study in direct response to Executive Orders13795 and 13807, and DOI Secretarial Order No. 3350 regarding streamlining the environmental review process to address and reduce unnecessary delays and burdens wherever feasible. This study aims to leverage resources and maximize efficiencies for socioeconomic impact assessments related to federal oil and gas development in the GOM OCS. Ongoing streamlining efforts have required reforms in the Bureau decision-making processes and in the development of NEPA environmental assessment documents such as Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). Among these new needs is a call for the provision of more efficient deliveries of the Bureau’s scientific analyses that inform its NEPA environmental assessments and decision-making.

This study addresses this heightened need for efficiency while maintaining the Bureau’s long-standing record of scientific rigor by directly supporting BOEM streamlining efforts, including reduced timeframes for completion of EISs, strict page limitations, and maximized efficiencies with the adoption of a Bureau-wide bibliographic software program. This study further addresses a second NEPA purpose, the identification of the issues and concerns of businesspeople, oil workers, fishers, farmers, and others who actually live on the Gulf of Mexico coast in non-confrontational settings. Streamlining brings challenges, but with challenges come opportunities.

OBJECTIVES

The study addresses BOEM’s evolving NEPA needs and urgent mandate for streamlining.

1. Maximize efficiencies by making readily available to BOEM environmental assessment analysts and decision-makers the detailed information and analyses contained in all BOEM GOM socioeconomic-related documents and other key Federal, state, and academic research publications with the development of a full-text, searchable system that synthesizes all relevant research, that is searchable by NEPA issues and topics, that maintains context and relevant information such as source, place, and time, and that is reliable, updatable, and expandable.

2. Leverage resources by building robust outreach relationships between BOEM, Louisiana State institutions, industry support sectors, coastal communities and interested civic associations such as industry trade groups. workforce engagement organizations and economic development agencies. This effort will strengthen BOEM’s and the Region’s understanding of the issues and concerns of Gulf Coast residents and developing approaches and methods to garner such information in non-confrontational settings.

While this study supports NEPA streamlining, BOEM and the State of Louisiana share many of the same concerns regarding coastal Louisiana and this Project will benefit from high levels of cooperation.

TASKS

Tasks to be completed include, but are not limited to:

1. Establish the Project Management Team

2. Develop Project Website

3. Recruitment, Mentoring and Training

4. Conduct Coding Seminar and Workshop

5. Compile Project Database and Documentation*

6. Write Project Database User’s Guide and Synthesis Report

7. Collect, Catalogue and Submit Project Materials

* The Project Database and Documentation (Task 5, Deliverable F) will be maintained online internally, updated throughout the POP, and whatever parts of it are able to be made public, will be made public after the end of the POP.

BOEM anticipates a funding level of $400,000 for this work with a forty-two (42) month Period of Performance (POP).]

MEETINGS, REPORTS, AND OTHER DELIVERABLES

A.1. Post Award Meeting, Agenda and Summary. The Recipient shall participate in a post-award meeting held at a location agreeable to both BOEM and the Recipient, or by teleconference/ webinar, within two (2) weeks following the award. The goal of this meeting is to ensure a clear understanding by all of study tasks, concerns, availability of relevant data and reports, deliverables, and timelines. The Recipient shall provide an agenda to meeting participants one (1) week prior to the meeting and provide a Meeting Summary to participants within one (1) week after the meeting.

A.2. Project Management Team (PMT) Meetings, Agenda and Summary. The PMT will meet regularly, approximately monthly, and provide BOEM with a written report of the discussions. In preparation for each PMT meeting, the Principal Investigator (PI) will query its participants regarding potential topics; one (1) week prior to each meeting, the PI will distribute a meeting agenda via email to its participants. Within one (1) week following each PMT meeting, the PI will provide BOEM and other participants with a short summary of the meeting discussions, including the status of the ongoing research, a description of any problems and their potential resolutions, and a list of action items and description of any outstanding issues.

B. Project Website. The Recipient shall establish and maintain a website during the period of performance to facilitate project monitoring and the identification of potential problems as they occur. The website will include all project deliverables in all versions, as applicable (interim, draft, and final). The website will also highlight coding issues identified by Coding Teams and maintain an account of the overall coding progress (i.e., documents coded, topics covered, evolvement of methodology). The current status of the Project Database and Documentation (Deliverable F) will be updated regularly on the website with a running commentary on changes to the database, and issues encountered regarding the database and codes. An external version of the website will be designed and made available for the public as part of the final completion of the Project. The public version will contain all materials checked to ensure they do not violate copyright or personal protected data (PPD) rules.

C. Memorandum: Recruitment, Mentoring and Training (Draft and Final). This memorandum shall describe the recruitment, mentoring and training of the coders. This will be based on the results of Task 3 and provide information such as, the appropriate team size, staffing, methods of testing and bookkeeping, which will be determined in concert with BOEM at the time the groups are established. The coders, care in coding, cross checking results, and careful documentation are key to quality results. Upon completion of Task 4, the teams will have oversight, will provide regular documentation of their work, and will be given the resources to properly test and document defensible codes.

The Recipient shall submit the Draft Memorandum within four (4) weeks after the Post-Award Meeting. A Final Memorandum will be submitted within three (3) weeks of the receipt of BOEM’s review.

D. Coding Seminar and Workshop. Within six (6) weeks of the Post-Award Meeting, Recipient shall hold a multi-day Coding Seminar and Workshop. Content coding is generally applied to individual research efforts; this Project will develop a valid and reliable coding system that is applicable to a wide range of NEPA-related social science research and use, requiring a detailed strategy for its application. The Coding Seminar and Workshop will bring together Project participants, BOEM staff, and experts on coastal Louisiana, software applications and coding construction. The Seminar will resolve any outstanding technical details related to strategy, methodology, overall approach, and its adequacy in addressing BOEM’s NEPA needs. A major portion of Task 4 is devoted to thoroughly acquainting Project participants with a well-developed coding strategy.

The PI will provide the CO/COR a draft agenda, including a list of expert attendees, three (3) weeks prior to the planned Coding Seminar/Workshop. BOEM will review this document within one (1) week. If required, the PI will provide a revised agenda to the participants within one (1 week after receiving the review.

Within three (3) weeks after the Seminar/Workshop, the PI will provide BOEM a draft paper copy summary of the discussions and will provide BOEM and key participants an electronic copy of the same. BOEM will review this draft within two (2) weeks of its receipt and the recipient will finalize it within two (2) weeks of the receipt of BOEM’s comments. This summary will contain a clear description of the organization of the Coding Teams and their methodological approach.

E. Coding Team Summary Reviews. A code is evaluated by its validity and reliability, whether it measures what it is reputed to measure and whether it is stable. Coders work together in teams develop valid and reliable codes. This teamwork is the core of the Project’s methodology and requisite for intercoder reliability. While its details will be finalized by the Coding Seminar and Workshop, team recordkeeping will be detailed and subject to constant review by the PI and other Project staff throughout the Project. This deliverable will provide a more systematic overview of these materials and shall be prepared for review approximately every three (3) months after the Post-Award Meeting. These reviews will describe the development, testing and status of each code, include descriptions of how each team is proceeding in their iterative process of testing codes, and document changes to any codes that have resulted from this work. These deliverables are interim methodological summaries for the Project containing results of those tests and adjustments that are analyzed and summarized.

F. Project Database and Documentation. This deliverable will include a coded, full-text, fully searchable database, together with complete documentation of its content and metadata. The database will support socioeconomic assessment of the coastal Gulf of Mexico. Codes will be designed to identify subject matter critical to the socioeconomic assessment of NEPA-related topics and issues without the loss of contextual information such as time, place, and providence. The sources will include relevant BOEM research and other Bureau publications and materials located in its electronic database deemed critical to Gulf socioeconomic assessments, materials from other Federal and state agencies deemed critical to socioeconomic assessment, and other materials significant to understanding the Bureau’s recent socioeconomic impacts on the coast. The codes shall be fully described in the database metadata and in accompanying written documentation. As much as is achievable: (1) Each code will be valid: (a) The label of each code will be clear in its meaning and interpreted the same way by its various users; (b) The range of available codes cover the range of salient events, topics, issues, etc. that is found in the Project Database. (2) The code will be reliable: (a) Codes will include all that is relevant within the Project Database and exclude all that is not; (b) There will be consistency among coders; (c) The methodology will be replicable (updatable). (3) The Project database will be sufficiently broad to address the various concerns of Gulf socioeconomic assessment. These technical issues segue into the possibility that the procedures developed here will prove applicable to the production of databases for other areas of BOEM concern.

The Project Database will be electronic, and its most current version will be always available to BOEM for inspection and use. A backup version of the Database will be made daily. Each code will include its metadata. An electronic memo attached to the Project Database will provide a running commentary on changes to, and issues encountered regarding the codes. The Project Database is “complete” when the CO/COR receives (a) notification that work on it has ceased and (b) a copy of the Database on a physical devise. This shall occur no later than thirty-four (34) months after the Post-Award Meeting. As part of the final completion of the Project, a suitable version of the database will be designed and made available for the public.

G. Memorandum: Summary of Final Database Methodology (Draft and Final). With the conclusion of the Project Database, the Recipient shall provide BOEM with a memorandum that describes the Database including: (1) the logic and categories that organize the database; (2) a general description (methodology) of the procedures used to identify, develop, and test the codes; (3) a description of the development of each code; (4) an evaluation of validity and reliability for each code. A Draft Memorandum will be no later than thirty-four months (34) after the Post-Award Meeting and will be reviewed by BOEM within three (3) weeks of its receipt. A Final Memorandum will be submitted within three (3) weeks of the receipt of BOEM’s review. The primary source for this Memorandum will be the Coding Team Summary Reviews, which will provide detailed analyses on codes accepted and rejected for the database.

H. Database Users' Guide and Project Synthesis - (Interim 1, Interim 2 and Draft Final). This deliverable will be one document that consisting of a User’s Guide for the Project Database and a concise Project Synthesis that evaluates and describes the various materials and data categories that have been coded. The Interim versions of the deliverable will focus on perfecting it with the ultimate purpose of encouraging efficient use by individuals unfamiliar BOEM’s program or full-text databases. The Guide will explain the workings of the database, the data structure based on NEPA issue categories, list the data with definitions, map the data, and provide a simple tutorial on search strategies.

The Recipient shall provide BOEM with two Interim Project Database Users’ Guide and Synthesis one at eight (8) months and one at twenty (20) months after the Post-Award Meeting.

Within thirty-four (34) months of the Post-Award Meeting, the Recipient shall provide BOEM with a Draft Final Project Database Users' Guide and Synthesis (The Draft Final shall also include a description of Project-related activities (see Deliverable I, Task 7).

I. Record of Project-Related Activities and Related Project Materials. The “Outreach Component” is an important part of this research design. Project staff and team members will engage actively in with the business and civic community’s public activities. These outreach activities will express or facilitate the aims of the study. Outreach activities serve basic study goals, they: further the state’s needs regarding the training of students in subject matters, research goals, and life’s applications (e.g., communication, business); collect salient, up-to-date information from coastal residents and the State to the database; and, provide a means of gathering such information for BOEM in constructive settings.

As appropriate, information gathered at outreach activities will be coded and added to the database. To document these activities, the Recipient shall also provide BOEM with a list of each of these outreach-related activities. When possible, this should include the person(s), date, and a description of the activities. To the extent practicable, the Recipient will collect, catalogue, and provide to BOEM, copies or originals of any materials that are developed by Project team members, subcontractors, and volunteers that are intended to express or facilitate the aims of the Project, and any after-event or descriptions or summaries of the events that may have been produced. Examples of such items would include training materials, classroom plans, presentation materials, handouts, and study plans, meeting presentations, handouts, and notes, outreach documents such as leaflets and mailouts, taped and transcribed radio commentaries, photographs and web materials, and student and faculty papers. The recipient will make an effort to acquire legal waivers for any document should such be required for its public use.

Project Materials and catalogue will be delivered as part of the Draft Final Project Database User’s Guide and Synthesis (Deliverable H). If agreed to by the BOEM CO/COR, Project PI, and individual authors, this deliverable also will include a draft final of a report containing student/faculty work that results from the Project.

J. Technical Summary (Draft and Final). The Recipient shall prepare a technical summary of the Final Report. The summary should be approximately two (2) single-spaced typewritten pages in length with a format as indicated by BOEM specifications. The Draft shall be submitted within thirty-four (34) months of the Post-Award Meeting. The Final shall be submitted within four (4) weeks of receiving BOEM review comments.

K. Presentation, Biographies, and Summaries at Information Transfer Meeting (ITM). If an ITM occurs during the period of performance of this cooperative agreement, the recipient may make a presentation at the ITM held in New Orleans, Louisiana. The recipient shall submit a 2-4-page written summary and short biography to the COR two (2) weeks prior to the meeting, conforming to the format specifications sent with the invitation to speak. Appropriate visual aids will be limited to clear, readable 35mm slides, or digital presentation software, such as PowerPoint. Any handouts to be distributed at the Meeting must pertain to the presentation and have prior approval by the COR.

SCHEDULE AND DISTRIBUTION OF DELIVERABLES

Deliverable products shall be submitted to the addresses shown below in accordance with the following schedule:

ESPR – one (1) copy PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Within two (2) weeks of award. Summary due within one (1) week after meeting.

A.2. Project Management Team (PMT) Meetings, Agenda and Summary

ESPR – one (1) copy PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Agenda within one (1) week of each PMT Meeting Report. Summary due within one (1) weeks after each meeting.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Draft due within four (4) weeks of the Post-Award Meeting.

Final due within three (3) weeks of receipt of BOEM review.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Workshop to be held within six (6) weeks of Post-Award Meeting. Agenda due three (3) weeks prior to Workshop. Summary due three (3) weeks after Workshop.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Shall be submitted approximately every three (3) Months after the Post-Award Meeting.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Draft due no later than thirty-four (34) months after Post-Award Meeting. Final due within three (3) weeks of receipt of BOEM review.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Interim 1 due no later than eight (8) months and Interim 2 due no later than twenty (20) months after the Post-Award Meeting.

Draft Final due within thirty-four (34) months of the Post Award Meeting.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Submitted as a part of Deliverable H within thirty-four (34) months of the Post-Award Meeting.

J. Technical Summary (Draft and Final) ESPR – one (1) copy PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Draft due within thirty-four (34) months of Post-Award Meeting.

Final due within four (4) after receiving BOEM review.

PO – one (1) copy CO – one (1) copy Summary and biography due two (2) weeks prior to the ITM.

ADDRESSES FOR DELIVERABLES

Project Officer [PO] Sindey Chaky Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Office of Environment, GM 673E 1201 Elmwood Park Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70123 Sindey.Chaky@boem.gov Contracting Officer [CO]

TBD

Contracting Officer Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Acquisition Policy & Systems Branch 45600 Woodland Road, VAE-AMD Sterling, Virginia 20166

Chief, Division of Environmental Sciences [DES] U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Division of Environmental Sciences 45600 Woodland Road, VAM-OEP Sterling, VA 20166 EnvironmentalStudiesProgram2@boem.gov Environmental Studies Program Representative [ESPR] John Primo Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Division of Environmental Sciences 45600 Woodland Road, VAM-OEP Sterling, Virginia 20166 john.primo@boem.gov