By Jack O’Toole
StatehouseReport.com
Palmetto State political and environmental leaders say it’s too soon to know how serious the renewed threat of offshore oil drilling is for the South Carolina coast.
The Trump administration has officially put the issue under review at the federal level, according to federal officials. But in 2020, Trump signed an executive order that banned drilling off the South Atlantic seaboard through 2032. Now just five years later, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has started a long review process that could change that order — and replace the state’s famous slogan, “Smiling faces, beautiful places,” with “Drill, baby, drill.”
With a $30 billion tourist industry and some of the nation’s most pristine beaches and ocean ecosystems at stake, state leaders aren’t taking a wait-and-see approach to the issue. Instead, they’re speaking out now — and they’re making their position as clear as the waterways they’re trying to protect.
“Governor McMaster has long opposed drilling off South Carolina’s coast,” said Brandon Charochak, a spokesman for Gov. Henry McMaster. “And he continues to do so today.”
Lowcountry Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, whose 1st District stretches from Charleston to Beaufort, was equally definitive on social media.
“We’ve always opposed offshore drilling off South Carolina’s coast,” she said in a June 2 post on X. “President Trump banned it … to protect our tourism, our fisheries, and our way of life. We stand with the people of South Carolina who oppose it too.”
So why is offshore drilling back on the table, given the 2020 ban and ongoing state opposition?
First, a more recent Trump order that was signed on his first day in office in January, directed federal officials to “unleash American energy,” which led to the current BOEM review. And second, the move to expand offshore drilling enjoys strong support from powerful industry players.
“We applaud … the administration for taking action to unleash America’s vast offshore oil and natural gas resources and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal [offshore oil] leasing,” said the American Petroleum Institute (API), which represents oil and natural gas companies, in an April 18 statement lauding the BOEM review.
The API did not reply to a request for comment for this story.
Bipartisan pushback
Perhaps no two South Carolina political figures are better known for their opposition to offshore drilling than Mount Pleasant Republican Sen. Chip Campsen and former. Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham of Charleston.
For Campsen, an avid outdoorsman who helped lead the charge to secure the 2020 ban, the issue boils down to a tale of two coasts.
In South Carolina, he said, our clean beaches and waterways support sun-and-fun recreation, high-end real estate and a multibillion dollar tourist industry. But in Louisiana, which has a dirtier and more industrial coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, the massive refinery infrastructure and perpetually fuel-slicked waterways primarily serves one big business — the oil industry.
“Seventy years ago, we made our choice and they made theirs,” Campsen told Statehouse Report on June 4. “They hung their hat on oil. We hung our hat on a pristine coast. And we have a much more profitable coastal economy as a result.”
Any effort to reverse that choice now would make “absolutely no sense” environmentally or economically, Campsen added.
“With drilling, you’d see the massive industrialization of our coast,” he said. “We don’t want South Carolina to turn into that.”
Across the political aisle, Cunningham, who won an uphill congressional race in 2018 due largely to his opponent’s rare support for offshore drilling, said the reemergence of the issue shows the dangers of a political moment when all politics is national.
“Offshore drilling brings Republicans and Democrats in South Carolina together like no other issue,” Cunningham said. “To see it rearing its ugly head again is really frustrating, but it shows how vigilant you have to stay on these kinds of issues.”
Still, he sounded optimistic about the issue, particularly given Trump’s closeness to the state and many of its leading GOP officials.
“Sitting here objectively, South Carolina helped propel Trump into office in 2016,” Cunningham said. “I hope that he would understand that this is a core issue to the people of our state, and that he’d return their support by taking it off the table.”
Taking action
The first step in BOEM’s review process is a public comment period, which is currently underway.
And according to political and environmental leaders, it’s a critical opportunity for South Carolinians to make their voices heard before any decisions are made.
“We encourage everyone to reach out and comment,” said Taylor Allred, the Coastal Conservation League’s energy and climate program director. “You don’t have to have a lot of expertise or a lengthy comment for it to be impactful.”
But like Cunningham, Allred stressed the importance of staying vigilant.
“Just because it’s deeply unpopular in our state doesn’t mean that it’s not a real risk,” Allred said. “We need to do everything we can to push back against this possible destruction of our coastal way of life.”
The BOEM public comment period runs through June 16. To comment online, go to https://bit.ly/4kNUpcU.
