Gregg: South Carolinians must tell the feds: Oil is not our future

The recent letter by Congressman Jeff Duncan of Clinton harkened back to the days of colonial overlords making inflated promises of future prosperity to a banana republic. But South Carolina’s coast is not a third-world country. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that for the past two years, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and Charleston were the three fastest growing metro areas on the entire Atlantic coast. Are folks moving here in vast numbers in anticipation of an oil boom?

Today, our coast is a residential and recreational playground. The arrival of oil and gas would be a game changer. It would mean an inevitable 180-degree turn toward an industrial coastline. Tragically, our Gulf Coast neighbors’ experience shows that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Now is the time to say “no” to both exploration and drilling. Seventy-five of the most credentialed marine scientists in the world sent a letter to President Obama recently concluding that “opening the U.S. east coast to seismic air gun exploration poses an unacceptable risk of serious harm to marine life at the species and population levels, the full extent of which will not be understood until long after the harm occurs.”

It does not take a catastrophe like the 2010 BP spill to spoil the white sandy beaches that draw tourists from around the world, and the marshes that are home to rare birds and shellfish. According to the Coast Guard, thousands of spills are reported every year along the Gulf Coast from “normal” operations.

Perhaps in his boundless zeal for the oil and gas “renaissance” he touts, Congressman Duncan believes oiling the coast is not a concern to his constituents, who are 150 to 200 miles away from the coast. To the contrary, all South Carolinians should realize that our beaches and coastal marshlands are owned by us all. Also, as a cherished tradition, generations of South Carolinians across the state have migrated for a week or two every summer to enjoy our unspoiled coastline.

The misleading rhetoric of oil and gas devotees will continue. We hope U.S. Department of Interior officials will listen to local voices — particularly the voices of the many towns and cities, including Charleston, Beaufort and Hilton Head, that have passed resolutions against seismic testing and offshore drilling.

Executive Director

S.C. Wildlife Federation

Columbia

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Gregg: South Carolinians must tell the feds: Oil is not our future."