In a storm of debate over offshore drilling, Briarcliffe Acres surfaced as the latest coastal town to join a united front against seismic testing and drilling for oil and natural gas off of South Carolina’s beaches.
Missing councilwoman Abby Stewart, who has been with family on the west coast, the town council unanimously passed a resolution Monday, joining 23 other S.C. coastal towns in a stance against offshore drilling.
We don’t even know what’s out there. We don’t know if there’s gas, if there’s natural gas or if there’s crude oil.
Congressman Tom Rice
“We understand what damage can ensue from any spill that could happen out there,” said Councilman Huston Huffman. “We don’t want to take the risk of a spill out there polluting the beaches.”
For many the rallying cry against offshore drilling echoes the loss of tourism dollars that could cripple coastal economies. But for Briarcliffe Acres, a “bedroom community” of about 500, any damage would not just hit a tourist destination, it would hit home.
The resolution had been in the works for a couple of months, Huffman said, but other issues pushed the matter to Monday’s agenda.
A news release from the Stop Oil Drilling in the Atlantic Leadership Team on Monday called the vote an “incredible show of unity, and a strong message” appealing to legislators to “stop Washington from forcing this on South Carolina.”
Legislators say the region’s resolutions may do little to stop offshore drilling if the project is ultimately approved.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced a draft proposed program in January that opened up two planning areas for testing along the coast from the Maryland-Virginia state line to the Georgia-Florida line.
The coast of Virginia was proposed for a potential offshore drilling site five years ago, but plans fizzled in the wake of the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Buzz of where the potential rigs will actually go abound among opponents, with doom scenarios marring the coastlines from Georgetown to Wilmington, N.C. Advocates banned together – bridging the gap between party lines – to send a clear message to legislators that residents don’t want the rigs off of the $18 billion tourism-rich South Carolina coast.
Dr. Jim Watkins, a retired Presbyterian minister who lives in Pawley’s Island, helped form the Stop Oil Drilling in the Atlantic alliance, which he describes as a “grassroots citizen’s organization which works on ‘just this one issue of drilling.’”
The group praised Briarcliffe Acres for joining other municipalities like Myrtle Beach, Atlantic Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach that have all passed similar resolutions in recent months.
Briarcliffe Acres’ action brought all of Horry County’s coastal towns on board against offshore drilling, said Jean Marie Neal, a SODA representative.
“The vote today means every coastal municipality in South Carolina has said no to offshore drilling off our beaches,” Watkins said in the release.
Myrtle Beach City Council passed a resolution Aug. 11 saying it wanted to protect the beaches from potential oil spills, joining at least 18 other municipalities opposing offshore drilling at the time. The decision was greeted with applause from 100 spectators in the audience.
Opponents say offshore drilling would hurt marine life, pumping into the Atlantic the potential of spills and sound waves that would send sea creatures scurrying. And the risk to the state’s high dollar tourism industry makes the idea demand a price too high to pay.
Advocates say the drilling can be done safely and tapping into an oil or natural gas reserve could help the country move away from its dependence on foreign oil, helping in turn with national security. The underwater goldmine would mean more jobs and tax dollars.
“The possible jobs and revenue gained from drilling is miniscule compared to the dollars tourists spend in Horry County and the rest of coastal South Carolina,” Watkins said in the release. “Giving our coast to the oil and gas industry simply does not make economic sense.”
A closer look
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has the power to open the Atlantic up for oil leasing with or without any state input, said Congressman Tom Rice.
And the idea that South Carolina would profit from any offshore drilling is not a possibility in federal legislation – yet. Rice said his office is working on a bill that would change that.
The bureau is reviewing if and where oil and gas leases might be issued on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, but the draft plans call for only one lease to be issued. Plans also include a 50-mile buffer from the coastline. The buffer would keep the operation out of immediate sight from a shoreline, but would also keep any potential revenue gain out of the state’s coffers.
The state would only reap revenue if the operation falls within South Carolina’s coastal territory, which is about three miles from the shoreline.
“There’s a special law that allows the Gulf states to get a revenue share of 37.5 percent,” Rice said, but no law exists for the mid- to south-Atlantic coastal states, which have never been opened to federal oil leases before.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) submitted a bill that provides for revenue sharing for the states, but the bill also does away with the buffer zone, Rice said.
The congressman added that they are working on a bill now that would keep the 50-mile buffer zone in play, while giving South Carolina a 37.5 percent revenue share.
“We don’t even know what’s out there. We don’t know if there’s gas, if there’s natural gas or if there’s crude oil,” Rice said.
The last time the ocean floor was scanned for potential reserves, the probe was conducted with technology from the 1980s. Technology has changed since then. “There appears to be formations that would likely have some type of reserves,” Rice said, but we “don’t know what or how much.”
Rice has said the issue of offshore drilling needs more review.
“My position has been let’s do the seismic testing,” he said. “Let’s find out what’s out there and then we can make rational decisions.”
Rice said that he also wants to know what can be done to “safeguard our tourism revenue” and that a study could find the reserves aren’t worth the trouble and expense of drilling.
500 Rough population of Briarcliffe Acres
Rice had planned to call a public forum last Wednesday with a professor from Coastal Carolina University, a professor from the University of South Carolina, a representative from the Coastal Conservation League, a public official from Mobile, Ala., and the director of BOEM to address the issue, talk about the process, the timelines of any project and when and where along that timeline the public will have input. The forum was postponed in the wake of the state’s recent historic flooding. Rice said that his office is working on rescheduling the forum.
In the last six weeks, Rice said he has visited oil fields in two states and the offshore drilling rigs in Louisiana to get a closer look at the operations.
“They opened up oil fields off of Alaska like a month or two months ago,” he said. “And the oil companies have pulled out saying it’s not economically feasible.”
The same could happen here, he said.
“It may be that this never becomes feasible to drill off the Atlantic,” he said.
The potential section of Atlantic coastal exploration fell in an area where state governments have been known to support expanded energy development offshore.
Gov. Nikki Haley supports offshore drilling and is a member of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition. The coalition operates on a mission to, among other things, “influence a sensible path forward for the development of America’s offshore energy resources.”
Emily Weaver: 843-444-1772, @TSNEmily
Leave a Reply