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Published: 1976

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The extraction and/or conversion of energy resources can be expected to proliferate in the immediate future. The socio-economic consequences of the ''boom-town'' phenomena are pervasive; they impact both energy consumers and producers as well as the indigenous and in-migrating populations of the areas exposed to development. While the effects are potentially more severe on the old and new households in the impact area, the consequences of the social and economic disruptions experienced in ''boom towns'' are transmitted to the energy producers in the form of higher costs from the declines in productivity attributable to high labor turnover and ultimately to energy consumers in the form of higher prices. Thus, the problems associated with the socio-economic impacts of energy development are properly the responsibility of officials at the Federal, state, and local levels; the energy industry; and consumer advocacy groups. This report describes an analytic approach that can be used to assess the impacts of energy development in site-specific situations and to prepare recommendations for the mitigation of these impacts. The framework presented enables the user to forecast annual changes in the magnitude and composition of employment and population of the impact area, then evaluate the effects of these changes on the provision of needed services specifically and local quality of life generally over time. Thus, while this approach permits an analysis of future growth due to energy development, its primary concern is to evaluate the site-specific implications of growth and possible strategies for their mitigation. The framework outlined here has been applied to the case of a single coal gasification facility in Mercer County, North Dakota. The results of that study are summarized here to illustrate the nature of the analysis, the types of conclusions, and the variety of mitigating strategies obtainable from the use of this framework.