ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the legal indicia, primarily court opinions, of federal-state conflict over outer continental shelf oil and gas development in the 1980s to support more general observations about intergovernmental relations offshore. The patterns derived from the offshore oil and gas experience are used to predict the probable course of Intergovernmental relations in projected offshore hard minerals development and to evaluate proposed improvements in the current scheme. Prior to the 1980s, National Environmental Policy Act was practically the only statutory tool coastal state and local governments had available for participating in the outer continental shelf oil and gas development process. The legal regime under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act governing minerals development is remarkably simple compared to the relatively elaborate one governing oil and gas development, especially with respect to intergovernmental relations. The continued viability of the Congressional moratoria process has been questioned by several knowledgeable individuals in state government, the oil industry, and the federal government.
