Federal government discussing offshore drilling off on South Carolina, Georgia coast

Yahoo

3 days ago

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WSAV) — The beauty of the coastline is one big reason people come to the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry to visit.
But once again, the federal government is talking about changing that look, by adding equipment to drill in the ocean on our coast.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is redoing its 5-year plan, evaluating the American coastline for potential sites to drill for natural energy resources.
That includes potential new oil and gas leases on the Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina coasts, which by a resolution signed by President Trump in his first term, are supposed to be protected until 2032.
But Trump signed an executive order earlier this year reversing a Biden Administration policy that further protected those same waters.
In this term, Trump has since asked for more natural resources to be found to find more energy, including gas and oil.
Environmental officials said the impact even before the drilling starts could be devastating.
'I think that all of the area off our coast is potentially on the table if offshore drilling, if they decide to include the South Atlantic Zone,' Coastal Conservation League Energy and Climate Program Director Taylor Allred said. 'There would be seismic testing. The companies would use sonic cannons that blast very, very high pressure, sound waves through the water in order to survey the ocean floor and get an idea of good areas to do test drilling to see if there actually any oil and gas is there to try and recover.'
Allred said the destructive steps might not yield anything but could kill thousands of marine animals. Test drilling could also destroy critical coral reefs and other underwater habitats.
'All along South Carolina and Georgia, we have a really vital ecosystem that's really fueled by the largest known deep-sea coral in the world that sits on the Blake Plateau,' Allred said. 'It takes thousands of years for a large coral like that to grow with only a few millimeters of growth per year. If these companies go in and start drilling, they're likely to destroy the coral and it could take thousands of years for it to regrow if it ever manages to do so.'
South Carolina's coast is responsible for the majority of the state's $20 billion tourism industry and a $6 billion marine economy that employs about 80,000 people.
'We'd all really not want to see that destroyed for the sake of a little bit of potential oil and gas drilling,' said Allred.
Local and state officials have also expressed that they are against drilling along South Carolina's coast.
'There's been seismic studies done already. There's very little oil offshore,' South Carolina State Senator Tom Davis (R – District 46) said. 'The risk reward thing just simply doesn't justify it in terms of the environmental disruption and things that would occur.'
Alongside politicians such as South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster opposing the idea, 26 different communities, towns, counties and cities have passed resolutions against offshore drilling.
'Look, we have abundant sources of natural gas, abundant sources of fossil fuels in America, and we ought to take advantage of those and want to bring them online,' Davis said. 'But they are not present off the shore of South Carolina. Seismic studies have shown that. And when you weigh that particular fact against the fact that you're going to have environmental disruptions, you're going to have disruptions to tourism, I don't think it's a good bet for our part of South Carolina to engage in that.'
First District Congresswoman Nancy Mace also made her opinions known on the issue and posted a letter she wrote to BOEM on X.
That letter said in part that drilling threatens tourism and our way of life and that we need to 'hold the line,' 'keep the ban' and 'protect our coast.'
In 2018, McMaster advocated against the drilling on behalf of South Carolina.
'Every city and town council along the South Carolina coastline has voted to oppose seismictesting and drilling, and I agree with them,' McMaster said in the letter to the Secretary of the Interior. 'Our commercial fishing industry enjoys a vibrant offshore ecosystem. The habitat disruption and other impacts that marine life could suffer due to seismic testing are simply not worth whatever benefit our state might see from placing oil rigs offshore.'
He also said that as a state located in 'Hurricane Alley,' they can't add more risk by putting offshore drilling platforms in the path of potential storms. McMaster referenced the fact that in 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 115 oil platforms and damaged 52 others in the Gulf.
The agency is accepting public comment on offshore drilling through June 16. You can click or tap here to write a comment with your thoughts.
Allred said even a short comment against offshore drilling can go a long way to protecting South Carolina.
Read Mace's letter in full below:
Read McMaster's letter to the Interior from 2018 here:
2018-01-16-Gov.-McMaster-to-Sec.-Zinke-re-Offshore-DrillingDownload
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