Powering Progress: How Science Can Fuel the Energy Resources Life Cycle
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By Ecosystems Mission Area
June 9, 2025
Energy is essential to modern life, and accessing it involves a complex lifecycle, from resource discovery to extraction, use, and eventual remediation and reclamation. The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area supports this process by conducting research and providing scientific insights to guide decision-making at each stage. By collaborating with resource management agencies and stakeholders, we analyze risks and streamline permitting processes to enhance energy development on public lands. This overview highlights applied research that addresses each phase of the energy life cycle, informing best practices for sustainable energy development.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Energy Resource Life Cycle
To unlock America’s energy reserves, the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area provides science, data products, and tools that support energy development. Accessing energy resources involves a complex life cycle process that begins with exploration and discovery and continues through harnessing, transporting, and using energy, ultimately leading to the reclamation of extraction sites. USGS research and scientific products assist throughout this entire life cycle from identification, planning, and permitting, to extraction, production, transport, storage, consumption, reuse, and post-development practices like decommissioning and restoration.
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Planning, Siting, and Permitting
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Planning, Siting, and Permitting
The USGS supports the early stages of energy resource development by conducting comprehensive research on energy and natural resources. We provide insights that help inform decisions related to planning, siting, and permitting energy projects. Our focus includes establishing resource and environmental baseline conditions, assessing potential risks to property, human health, and wildlife, and creating maps and tools to identify development opportunities while considering environmental factors.
- USGS maps areas to guide energy generation away from high-risk zones, such as those prone to wildfires or flooding, and sensitive habitats critical for wildlife reproduction and migration. This information also helps resource managers balance development with other uses like grazing, hunting, and conservation.
- We evaluate water quality, soil composition, ecological health, and habitat and movement needs of fish and wildlife species in proposed project areas to establish best practices and technological solutions for future development, thereby reducing regulatory burdens.
- We investigate environmental changes, contaminant sources, and historical impacts, including evaluating contaminants in energy-related materials to inform new planning efforts.
- We offer frameworks for assessing energy project scenarios, providing resource management options and streamlining the permitting process.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Extraction, Production, Transportation, and Storage
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Extraction, Production, Transportation, and Storage
The USGS plays a crucial role in understanding the effects of energy resource extraction, production, transportation, and storage. This helps promote energy development while also achieving other management goals, such as ensuring access to clean water, grazing land, or recreational opportunities on public lands and waters.
- Evaluate environmental risks, potential exposure pathways and effects associated with contaminants released during extraction, transportation, and storage, including accidental releases from drilling and well infrastructure.
- Assess the real and perceived impacts and environmental risks of oil and gas materials and byproducts on wildlife and ecosystems at extraction sites.
- Protect energy infrastructure like hydropower dams and power lines from damage by invasive species, wildfires, and other biological threats or natural hazards.
- Generate knowledge and tools to assist local communities and energy operators in producing energy safely and provide data to help identify and reduce environmental impacts, which can result in significant cost savings.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Developing structured science syntheses for use in NEPA analyses and decision making in the Bureau of Land Management
Developing structured science syntheses for use in NEPA analyses and decision making in the Bureau of Land Management
Geochemical Signatures of Oil and Gas Wastewater from an Accidental Release Detected in Stream Sediment and Pore Waters Two Years Post Spill
Geochemical Signatures of Oil and Gas Wastewater from an Accidental Release Detected in Stream Sediment and Pore Waters Two Years Post Spill
Effects of Noise from Oil and Gas Development on Ungulates and Small Mammals—A Science Synthesis to Inform National Environmental Policy Act Analyses
Effects of Noise from Oil and Gas Development on Ungulates and Small Mammals—A Science Synthesis to Inform National Environmental Policy Act Analyses
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Disposal (Byproducts and Reuse)
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Disposal (Byproducts and Reuse)
Managing byproduct disposal and reuse in the energy resource life cycle is vital for minimizing potential impacts, promoting sustainability, and reducing waste management costs. USGS research focuses on understanding waste management risks and exploring beneficial reuse strategies.
- Analyze and develop tools to reduce environmental risks associated with waste management practices in the oil and gas industry.
- Evaluate beneficial reuse of oil and gas byproducts, minimizing potential impact and reducing costs.
- Develop strategies to minimize byproduct generation and enhance byproduct management efficiency.
- Assess how critical mineral accumulate in coal mine drainage byproducts and solids to inform critical mineral extraction and reclamation efforts.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Oil and Gas Wastewater Exposure Pathways: What We Know and What Remains Unanswered
Oil and Gas Wastewater Exposure Pathways: What We Know and What Remains Unanswered
Organic Contaminants in Reuse Waters and Transport Following Land Application
Organic Contaminants in Reuse Waters and Transport Following Land Application
Energy Resource Life Cycle:Â Decommissioning, Reclamation, Remediation, Restoration
Energy Resource Life Cycle:Â Decommissioning, Reclamation, Remediation, Restoration
Effective decommissioning, reclamation, and restoration are essential for reducing the potential impacts of energy resource development. Our research aims to understand how ecosystems recover, track environmental conditions, and create solutions to lessen the effects of energy infrastructure.
- Work to develop best management practices for oil and gas development, emphasizing successful reclamation.
- Conduct site investigations to understand how different environmental conditions influence the recovery of contaminated areas, to develop effective cleanup and restoration approaches.
- Evaluate the recovery of ecosystems after extraction activities and their resilience to potential future contaminant releases, ensuring sustained ecological health.
- Develop cost-effective methods to map subsurface spills and groundwater plumes and monitor biodegradation over time.
- Study the impacts of oil and injection wells on wildlife species found in wildlife refuges and other areas of energy development, to assist land owners and managers in restoring sites with legacy oil wells.
- Work with tribal, state, and federal partners to assess approaches for reintroducing salmon above large dams in Washington, California, Oregon, and Idaho.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Supporting energy and mineral development through successful reclamation
Supporting energy and mineral development through successful reclamation
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Industrial energy development decouples ungulate migration from the green wave
Industrial energy development decouples ungulate migration from the green wave
Trace elements and consequent ecological risks in mining- influenced streams of Appalachia
Trace elements and consequent ecological risks in mining- influenced streams of Appalachia
Outmigration behavior and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon
Outmigration behavior and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon
Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States
Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States
Using biological responses to monitor freshwater post-spill conditions over 3 years in Blacktail Creek, North Dakota, USA
Using biological responses to monitor freshwater post-spill conditions over 3 years in Blacktail Creek, North Dakota, USA
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Dam removal cost databases and drivers
Dam removal cost databases and drivers
Relations of groundwater quality to long-term surface disposal of produced water
Relations of groundwater quality to long-term surface disposal of produced water
Environmental Health Program
Environmental Health Program
Land Management Research Program
Land Management Research Program
Species Management Research Program
Species Management Research Program
Energy and Minerals Mission Area
Stay in Touch with the Ecosystems Mission Area
Stay in Touch with the Ecosystems Mission Area
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Below are other science projects concerning Energy Research from the Ecosystems Mission Area:
USGS Science Syntheses for Public Lands Management
Scientific information is fundamental to understanding how proposed actions on public lands may impact the environment. Development of new science is occurring at rates that can make it challenging for biologists, resource managers, decision makers, private landowners, and other stakeholders to ensure they are using up-to-date, high-quality science information to inform their decisions. Further...
Increasing Efficiency During the Life Cycle of Energy Development: Key Strategies for Improving the Utilization of Our Nation's Energy Resources
Energy development is critical to American energy independence and provides economic benefits to local communities. Scientific information is needed to aid in the sustainable development of energy resources. Sustainable energy development can include strategies for protecting environmental health and ecological services that benefit local communities. The USGS Environmental Health Program, Energy...
Energy Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team
The Energy Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team focuses on the potential for environmental contaminant exposures that might originate from energy resource activities including extraction, production, transportation, storage, waste management, and restoration. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified...
The Gemini Solar Project
The United States is developing renewable energy resources, especially solar, at a rapid rate. Although renewable energy development is widely perceived by the public as “green technology,” construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of facilities all have known and potential negative impacts to natural resources, including plant communities and wildlife. This is especially...
Corridor Mapping Team: Ungulate Migrations of the West
Advancing the conservation and understanding of Wyoming's migratory hooved animals (mule deer, elk, pronghorn, etc.). The Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is led by USGS federal researchers. The Wyoming Migration Initiative is a University of Wyoming’s Zoology and Physiology Department-based collaborative of biologists, photographers, mapmakers, and writers working to research...
Polar Bear Maternal Denning
Pregnant polar bears enter maternity dens in October/November, give birth to cubs in December/January, and exit dens in March/April. Historically, most polar bears from the Southern Beaufort Sea (SBS) population constructed maternity dens on the sea ice. Over the last three decades, as sea ice has become thinner and prone to fragmentation, there has been a landward shift in the distribution of...
Oil and Gas Reclamation - About
What is reclamation? Reclamation means to assist in the repair or recovery of highly disturbed or degraded ecosystems to benefit native plants and animals by setting sites on a trajectory towards functioning habitats and ecological communities that are similar to surrounding, naturally occurring environments. During this process, the impacts of oil and gas development are minimized.
Fish Passage Design and Analysis at the S.O. Conte Research Laboratory
There are more than 92,000 dams in the United States, of which at least 3% of these produce hydropower. Hydropower projects create renewable energy but also can alter habitats, restrict upstream and downstream movements of fishes and other aquatic organisms, and may stress, injure or kill migrant fishes and other aquatic organisms. In addition, there are more than 5 million culverts and other road...
Smart Phone Application for DOI Oil Spill Responders
Semiquantitative analysis of hydrocarbons in the field is a major challenge for oil spill responders. This data imperative for sample collection and rapid decision making.
Framework for Examining Stream Ecosystem Health in Areas of Shale Gas Development—A Multi-Parameter Watershed-Based Case Study in Pennsylvania
In a case study of 25 headwater streams in Pennsylvania, no statistically significant associations were determined between shale gas development and geochemical tracers of produced waters or measures of microbial and macroinvertebrate community composition. Although the results are specific to the region studied, the integrated biological and geochemical framework provides a tool for examining...
Understanding Pathways of Unconventional Oil and Gas Produced Water Spills in the Environment
A new study measures the transport of chemicals associated with unconventional oil and gas (UOG) produced waters downstream from a pipeline leak in North Dakota. This work is part of a long-term study designed to understand chemical persistence in sediments and water and how those factors might be related to contaminant exposures and associated with adverse health effects, if any, on organisms.
Energy is essential to modern life, and accessing it involves a complex lifecycle, from resource discovery to extraction, use, and eventual remediation and reclamation. The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area supports this process by conducting research and providing scientific insights to guide decision-making at each stage. By collaborating with resource management agencies and stakeholders, we analyze risks and streamline permitting processes to enhance energy development on public lands. This overview highlights applied research that addresses each phase of the energy life cycle, informing best practices for sustainable energy development.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Energy Resource Life Cycle
To unlock America’s energy reserves, the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area provides science, data products, and tools that support energy development. Accessing energy resources involves a complex life cycle process that begins with exploration and discovery and continues through harnessing, transporting, and using energy, ultimately leading to the reclamation of extraction sites. USGS research and scientific products assist throughout this entire life cycle from identification, planning, and permitting, to extraction, production, transport, storage, consumption, reuse, and post-development practices like decommissioning and restoration.
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Planning, Siting, and Permitting
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Planning, Siting, and Permitting
The USGS supports the early stages of energy resource development by conducting comprehensive research on energy and natural resources. We provide insights that help inform decisions related to planning, siting, and permitting energy projects. Our focus includes establishing resource and environmental baseline conditions, assessing potential risks to property, human health, and wildlife, and creating maps and tools to identify development opportunities while considering environmental factors.
- USGS maps areas to guide energy generation away from high-risk zones, such as those prone to wildfires or flooding, and sensitive habitats critical for wildlife reproduction and migration. This information also helps resource managers balance development with other uses like grazing, hunting, and conservation.
- We evaluate water quality, soil composition, ecological health, and habitat and movement needs of fish and wildlife species in proposed project areas to establish best practices and technological solutions for future development, thereby reducing regulatory burdens.
- We investigate environmental changes, contaminant sources, and historical impacts, including evaluating contaminants in energy-related materials to inform new planning efforts.
- We offer frameworks for assessing energy project scenarios, providing resource management options and streamlining the permitting process.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Extraction, Production, Transportation, and Storage
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Extraction, Production, Transportation, and Storage
The USGS plays a crucial role in understanding the effects of energy resource extraction, production, transportation, and storage. This helps promote energy development while also achieving other management goals, such as ensuring access to clean water, grazing land, or recreational opportunities on public lands and waters.
- Evaluate environmental risks, potential exposure pathways and effects associated with contaminants released during extraction, transportation, and storage, including accidental releases from drilling and well infrastructure.
- Assess the real and perceived impacts and environmental risks of oil and gas materials and byproducts on wildlife and ecosystems at extraction sites.
- Protect energy infrastructure like hydropower dams and power lines from damage by invasive species, wildfires, and other biological threats or natural hazards.
- Generate knowledge and tools to assist local communities and energy operators in producing energy safely and provide data to help identify and reduce environmental impacts, which can result in significant cost savings.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Developing structured science syntheses for use in NEPA analyses and decision making in the Bureau of Land Management
Developing structured science syntheses for use in NEPA analyses and decision making in the Bureau of Land Management
Geochemical Signatures of Oil and Gas Wastewater from an Accidental Release Detected in Stream Sediment and Pore Waters Two Years Post Spill
Geochemical Signatures of Oil and Gas Wastewater from an Accidental Release Detected in Stream Sediment and Pore Waters Two Years Post Spill
Effects of Noise from Oil and Gas Development on Ungulates and Small Mammals—A Science Synthesis to Inform National Environmental Policy Act Analyses
Effects of Noise from Oil and Gas Development on Ungulates and Small Mammals—A Science Synthesis to Inform National Environmental Policy Act Analyses
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Disposal (Byproducts and Reuse)
Energy Resource Life Cycle: Disposal (Byproducts and Reuse)
Managing byproduct disposal and reuse in the energy resource life cycle is vital for minimizing potential impacts, promoting sustainability, and reducing waste management costs. USGS research focuses on understanding waste management risks and exploring beneficial reuse strategies.
- Analyze and develop tools to reduce environmental risks associated with waste management practices in the oil and gas industry.
- Evaluate beneficial reuse of oil and gas byproducts, minimizing potential impact and reducing costs.
- Develop strategies to minimize byproduct generation and enhance byproduct management efficiency.
- Assess how critical mineral accumulate in coal mine drainage byproducts and solids to inform critical mineral extraction and reclamation efforts.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Oil and Gas Wastewater Exposure Pathways: What We Know and What Remains Unanswered
Oil and Gas Wastewater Exposure Pathways: What We Know and What Remains Unanswered
Organic Contaminants in Reuse Waters and Transport Following Land Application
Organic Contaminants in Reuse Waters and Transport Following Land Application
Energy Resource Life Cycle:Â Decommissioning, Reclamation, Remediation, Restoration
Energy Resource Life Cycle:Â Decommissioning, Reclamation, Remediation, Restoration
Effective decommissioning, reclamation, and restoration are essential for reducing the potential impacts of energy resource development. Our research aims to understand how ecosystems recover, track environmental conditions, and create solutions to lessen the effects of energy infrastructure.
- Work to develop best management practices for oil and gas development, emphasizing successful reclamation.
- Conduct site investigations to understand how different environmental conditions influence the recovery of contaminated areas, to develop effective cleanup and restoration approaches.
- Evaluate the recovery of ecosystems after extraction activities and their resilience to potential future contaminant releases, ensuring sustained ecological health.
- Develop cost-effective methods to map subsurface spills and groundwater plumes and monitor biodegradation over time.
- Study the impacts of oil and injection wells on wildlife species found in wildlife refuges and other areas of energy development, to assist land owners and managers in restoring sites with legacy oil wells.
- Work with tribal, state, and federal partners to assess approaches for reintroducing salmon above large dams in Washington, California, Oregon, and Idaho.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Supporting energy and mineral development through successful reclamation
Supporting energy and mineral development through successful reclamation
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Industrial energy development decouples ungulate migration from the green wave
Industrial energy development decouples ungulate migration from the green wave
Trace elements and consequent ecological risks in mining- influenced streams of Appalachia
Trace elements and consequent ecological risks in mining- influenced streams of Appalachia
Outmigration behavior and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon
Outmigration behavior and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon
Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States
Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States
Using biological responses to monitor freshwater post-spill conditions over 3 years in Blacktail Creek, North Dakota, USA
Using biological responses to monitor freshwater post-spill conditions over 3 years in Blacktail Creek, North Dakota, USA
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Dam removal cost databases and drivers
Dam removal cost databases and drivers
Relations of groundwater quality to long-term surface disposal of produced water
Relations of groundwater quality to long-term surface disposal of produced water
Environmental Health Program
Environmental Health Program
Land Management Research Program
Land Management Research Program
Species Management Research Program
Species Management Research Program
Energy and Minerals Mission Area
Stay in Touch with the Ecosystems Mission Area
Stay in Touch with the Ecosystems Mission Area
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Below are other science projects concerning Energy Research from the Ecosystems Mission Area:
USGS Science Syntheses for Public Lands Management
Scientific information is fundamental to understanding how proposed actions on public lands may impact the environment. Development of new science is occurring at rates that can make it challenging for biologists, resource managers, decision makers, private landowners, and other stakeholders to ensure they are using up-to-date, high-quality science information to inform their decisions. Further...
Increasing Efficiency During the Life Cycle of Energy Development: Key Strategies for Improving the Utilization of Our Nation's Energy Resources
Energy development is critical to American energy independence and provides economic benefits to local communities. Scientific information is needed to aid in the sustainable development of energy resources. Sustainable energy development can include strategies for protecting environmental health and ecological services that benefit local communities. The USGS Environmental Health Program, Energy...
Energy Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team
The Energy Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team focuses on the potential for environmental contaminant exposures that might originate from energy resource activities including extraction, production, transportation, storage, waste management, and restoration. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified...
The Gemini Solar Project
The United States is developing renewable energy resources, especially solar, at a rapid rate. Although renewable energy development is widely perceived by the public as “green technology,” construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of facilities all have known and potential negative impacts to natural resources, including plant communities and wildlife. This is especially...
Corridor Mapping Team: Ungulate Migrations of the West
Advancing the conservation and understanding of Wyoming's migratory hooved animals (mule deer, elk, pronghorn, etc.). The Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is led by USGS federal researchers. The Wyoming Migration Initiative is a University of Wyoming’s Zoology and Physiology Department-based collaborative of biologists, photographers, mapmakers, and writers working to research...
Polar Bear Maternal Denning
Pregnant polar bears enter maternity dens in October/November, give birth to cubs in December/January, and exit dens in March/April. Historically, most polar bears from the Southern Beaufort Sea (SBS) population constructed maternity dens on the sea ice. Over the last three decades, as sea ice has become thinner and prone to fragmentation, there has been a landward shift in the distribution of...
Oil and Gas Reclamation - About
What is reclamation? Reclamation means to assist in the repair or recovery of highly disturbed or degraded ecosystems to benefit native plants and animals by setting sites on a trajectory towards functioning habitats and ecological communities that are similar to surrounding, naturally occurring environments. During this process, the impacts of oil and gas development are minimized.
Fish Passage Design and Analysis at the S.O. Conte Research Laboratory
There are more than 92,000 dams in the United States, of which at least 3% of these produce hydropower. Hydropower projects create renewable energy but also can alter habitats, restrict upstream and downstream movements of fishes and other aquatic organisms, and may stress, injure or kill migrant fishes and other aquatic organisms. In addition, there are more than 5 million culverts and other road...
Smart Phone Application for DOI Oil Spill Responders
Semiquantitative analysis of hydrocarbons in the field is a major challenge for oil spill responders. This data imperative for sample collection and rapid decision making.
Framework for Examining Stream Ecosystem Health in Areas of Shale Gas Development—A Multi-Parameter Watershed-Based Case Study in Pennsylvania
In a case study of 25 headwater streams in Pennsylvania, no statistically significant associations were determined between shale gas development and geochemical tracers of produced waters or measures of microbial and macroinvertebrate community composition. Although the results are specific to the region studied, the integrated biological and geochemical framework provides a tool for examining...
Understanding Pathways of Unconventional Oil and Gas Produced Water Spills in the Environment
A new study measures the transport of chemicals associated with unconventional oil and gas (UOG) produced waters downstream from a pipeline leak in North Dakota. This work is part of a long-term study designed to understand chemical persistence in sediments and water and how those factors might be related to contaminant exposures and associated with adverse health effects, if any, on organisms.