Prior to the recent boom in oil production from shale formations in the U.S., offshore oil production had been a main source of new supply for the world oil industry. These new supplies came from offshore Brazil, Angola, Nigeria, India, Egypt, Norway, the United Kingdom, and several other countries. While the U.S. remains a leader in offshore oil production based in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, 87 percent of offshore areas in the U.S. are ruled off-limits to new oil and gas drilling.

The U.S. Department of Interior considered holding a lease sale off Virginia in 2009 but that proposal was removed from consideration after the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico during 2010. Lease sales off the Atlantic seaboard, however, are possible during the next leasing period that starts in 2018. The advocates of these sales tout the economic and fiscal benefits of oil and gas development. Opponents cite the costs associated with environmental impacts. This study estimates and compares these economic, fiscal, and environmental impacts for an area that includes the Mid Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the Delmarva – Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia – and North Carolina, and the South Atlantic OCS off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia.

The study recognizes that there are uncertainties associated with not just how much oil and gas may be offshore but also with how society may value the economic and social costs associated with environmental emissions.