Office of Technology Assessment, United States Congress, science, technology, policy
By Paul B. Farrell | marketwatch.com | August 18, 2008
Mr. Farrell discusses the impact of war on the American economy. Near the end of his article he says that people should read John Alic’s “Trillions for Military Technology: How the Pentagon Innovates and Why It Costs So Much.” Mr. Alic worked at OTA for over 15 years.
By Karen Carnabucci | Lake House Racine Blog | August 18, 2008
This blog post discusses the benefits and drawbacks of paying for psychotherapy with employer-issued health insurance versus out of pocket funds. Ms. Carnabucci cites this 1991 OTA report, “Medical Monitoring and Screening in the Workplace: Results of a Survey“, which found that “almost a third of the employers that maintained employee medical records let their personnel departments read those records without notifying the employee.”
By Phillip H. | The Intersection blog | August 15, 2008
The author reflects on the report, “Science and Technology Policy in Congress“, released earlier this spring by The Keystone Center and the Consensus Building Institute. The report includes a review “of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), including a look at its origins, its successes and challenges, and its ultimate demise in the mid-1990s.” Phillip wonders, “do we really need to revive the Office of Technology Assessment?”
By Christopher Johnson, MD | Chris Johnson Blog | August 13, 2008
Dr. Johnson has a new blog post on children that are technology-dependent, or in other words they rely on technology in order to stay alive. He says:
“How many of these children are there in the community?…The only comprehensive data I could find for the USA are twenty years old, when a study (This 1987 OTA report, Technology Dependent Children: Hospital Vs. Home Care) from the federal Office of Technology Assessment estimated the total as 50,000 children (or about 5/100,000 persons) were technology-dependent, 2,000 of these needing ventilators.”
We conclude our weekly feature on OTA reports related to energy policy with these four reports. Two examine energy security related to a disruption in U.S oil imports, and the other two discuss oil and gas exploration in the arctic and off the coast of the continental U.S. Our posts from earlier in the week are available here, here, and here.
U.S. Vulnerability to an Oil Import Curtailment, September 1984
“This report responds to a request by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for an analysis of the U.S. oil replacement capability in the event of an oil supply shortfall of indefinite duration.”
Oil and Gas Technologies for the Arctic and Deepwater, May 1985
“This assessment addresses the technologies, the economics, and the operational and environmental factors affecting the exploration and development of energy resources in the deepwater and Arctic regions of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) established in March 1983.”
Oil Production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The Technology and the Alaskan Oil Context, February 1989
“In deciding the future of the ANWR coastal plain, Congress must address a wide variety of issues ranging from the environmental impacts of oilfield exploration, development, and production in an Arctic environment to the economic and national security benefits of potential additional oil production in Alaska…This report presents the results of an assessment of a subset of these issues focusing in particular on: the oilfield technology being used to develop the Alaskan North Slope’s oil resources and the likely configuration of that technology as it might be applied in the future to the coastal plain; and the prospects for future North Slope oil production, especially the likelihood that the flow of oil through the Trans Alaskan Pipeline System will suffer a serious decline during the next decade.”
U.S. Oil Import Vulnerability: The Technical Replacement Capability, October 1991
“Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 triggered a long-dormant awareness of this Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in foreign oil supplies. Amid heightened concern over the potential impacts on U.S. oil supplies of prolonged hostilities in the Middle East, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources asked OTA to update the conclusions of our 1984 report, U.S. Vulnerability to an Oil Import Curtailment…The report’s conclusion that U.S. capability to replace lost oil imports is shrinking should be sobering to those who believe that there are quick and easy technological solutions, or that market forces alone will be sufficient to overcome the substantial economic and social dislocations that could result from a prolonged major oil disruption.”