The US National Academies’ Gulf Research Program (GRP), a grouping of government, industry, academia and Gulf communities, has been conducting ‘serious games’ exercises to test oil spill preparedness, infrastructure resilience and look into the nation’s energy transition. In 2021, the GRP set up a virtual Offshore Situation Room to explore the possible impacts of an offshore oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and to plan mitigation and response. The Investing in Resilient Infrastructure game explored ways to prioritize energy infrastructure investment around the Gulf region.
Another ‘Path to Net-Zero’ game assumed that the US had met its goal of 100% clean electricity by 2050. Participants were asked to identify impacts this would have on local communities, governments, academia and industry. An alternative scenario, ‘Steadying the Transition’ assumed that ‘no strict government regulation had been put in place’ and that the goal of net-zero by 2050 had not been reached. Here the Gulf ‘continued to play a significant role in supplying natural gas and, to a lesser extent, oil to an economy gradually reducing carbon emissions’.
More on the Games in Maeghan Klinker’s feature story on the National Academies website.
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