The University of Houston will host a daylong symposium this Thursday (Sept. 23) about the potential environmental, energy and regulatory implications of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well spill.
The event, sponsored by the UH Center for Public History and the UH Energy Management and Policy Group, will feature discussions involving professors, students and guests with backgrounds in history, resource management, science, policy, law and the oil industry.
The panelists include UH professors Joseph Pratt and Tyler Priest, who was recently named a senior policy analyst to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Priest, director of Global Studies at UH's C. T. Bauer College of Business, was offered the assignment after testifying before the commission last month.
Pratt is a leading historian on the oil industry and the Houston region, and he is finishing a book about the business and government reactions to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Other participants include Greg Pollock, the deputy commissioner of the Texas Oil Spill Prevention and Response Program (OSPRA), Don Davis, former director of the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office (LOSCO), and Wes Tunnel, associate director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The symposium will feature morning and afternoon sessions as well as a Q&A discussion. The event is free, but those wanting to attend are asked to register at: http://www.history.uh.edu/oilspillsymposium.
For more information about the Center for Public History, visit: http://www.history.uh.edu/cph/.
To read about Tyler Priest's appointment, go to: http://bauerticker.uh.edu/ticker/recognition/uh-bauer-prof-appointed-to-national-oil-spill-commission/.
About the University of Houston:
The University of Houston is a comprehensive national research institution serving the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. UH serves more than 38,500 students in the nation's fourth-largest city, located in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region of the country.
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