Rigs to Reefs: Key methods for complex policy decisions (10/01/23)

Decision methods in the Rigs to Reefs project
Date: 10th January 2023

A Presentation by Max Henrion using the Rigs to Reefs project to illustrate key decision methods:
1. clarifying often conflicting objectives
2. working with multiple stakeholders
3. using influence diagrams to structure the problem
4. inventing new decision options
5. building a quantitative multi-attribute decision model
6. using decision conferences to move to agreement

Max Henrion, PhD, CEO, Lumina Decision Systems, Inc. Los Gatos, CA.

The question of how to decommission California's 27 offshore oil platforms, like most issues related to offshore oil in California, started as a major public controversy. Remarkably, after careful exploration, the stakeholders, including oil companies and environmentalists, reached consensus about the preferred policy of "rigs to reefs".
The team built an interactive decision analysis tool to enable stakeholders to explore the implications of alternative policies. Stakeholders included environmental groups, oil companies, commercial and recreational fishermen, divers, and a range of state and federal agencies. Their concerns included the cost of removal, environmental impacts on fish, marine mammals, birds, air and water quality, and compliance with the leases. After extensive exploration, they supported an option that converts the platforms to artificial reefs.
The California state legislature passed an enabling law, AB 2503, almost unanimously. This project received the 2014 Decision Analysis Practice Award from the Society of Decision Professionals.