In some coastal regions of the United States, such as western Louisiana, offshore oil development has long been welcomed. In others, such as northern California, it has been vehemently opposed. This book explores the reasons behind this paradox, looking at the people, the regions, and the issues in sociological and historical contexts.

What has been in very short supply on this issue, as in a growing number of other cases of technological gridlock, is balanced analysis. That is what this book provides. The authors' case studies, derived from interviews with Louisiana and California residents and from environmental impact statements, demonstrate that easy answers are not the most valid ones. The region that should be considered unusual, they find, is coastal Louisiana, where historical, social, and environmental factors combine to favor the offshore oil industry. But this combination of factors, they argue, is unlikely to be found in other coastal regions of the U.S. in the near future.

William R. Freudenburg is Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He served for six years on the Scientific Advisory Committee of offshore oil drilling for the U.S. Department of Interior.

Robert Gramling is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and has served on an advisory panel on federal offshore oil leasing for the National Academy of Sciences.