Our coastline is being threatened by offshore drilling again

Our South Carolina coast is under renewed threat from the Federal Government in the matter of offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Under pressure from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) recently opened new discussions regarding offshore drilling along the coasts of both North and South Carolina.

As you can well imagine, the mere possibility of drilling within sight of our pristine beachfront jeopardizes South Carolina’s economic lifeline, not to mention our fragile sea island marshes.

Unwavering Opposition
Local elected officials, along with business leaders, environmental organizations, and thousands of citizens across our state, have responded with unwavering opposition, but so far to no avail. Thankfully, the management of BOEM itself seems somewhat uncertain about the reasoning of the Interior Secretary, who previously was the Governor of North Dakota.

Recently, our governor, Henry McMaster, along with North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, issued a joint response to the threat with a hard-hitting letter stating that the Atlantic waters offshore from our Carolina coasts should be explicitly excluded as possible drilling zones.

Governor McMaster emphasized that our state’s $29 billion tourism industry anchored along the shoreline from Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head Island cannot risk oil or seismic testing in adjacent waters.

The Myrtle Beach Chamber pointed out that seismic testing would “reduce fish catch rates” and threaten not only the fishing industry but also more than 82,000 statewide tourism and hospitality jobs.

The Overwhelming Cost
Others have stated that any major oil spill in the saltwater estuaries that lie across the Lowcountry between Charleston and Daufuskie Island would be environmentally catastrophic.

My colleagues in the South Carolina legislature (both of our state senators representing Beaufort County, Chip Campsen and Tom Davis) further point out that the land-based infrastructure necessary to support any offshore drilling is expensive, very dirty, and highly industrialized – totally inappropriate for the wildlife sanctuaries and tidal, saltwater, protective ecosystems that dominate our area. These have historically proven to be among the most challenging ecosystems to clean.

It has been estimated that an oil spill off our coast on the level of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 could result in as much as $10 billion in combined economic, environmental, and property damages over a five to 10-year period – and that’s assuming a swift response.

Residential real estate prices would plummet, with high-end properties hit the hardest. Shrimp and other shellfish industries would remain closed for years, while insurance costs and infrastructure cleanup of beaches and harbors would severely burden local governments.

As your Hilton Head Island and Daufuskie state representative, I urge you to tell our U.S. Senators Lindsay Graham and Tim Scott, as well as Congresswoman Nancy Mace, to use all of their influence to reject offshore drilling (as well as wind projects) in our Carolina waters. We must protect our environment and our economy without compromising our coastline, which is more than a resource – it’s our identity.

Jeff Bradley is the representative for District 123 in the State House of Representatives.