Are state offshore drilling bills a waste of time?

When the country was gripped by high gas prices last year and some candidates were chanting "drill, baby, drill," national moratoriums on offshore oil and natural gas drilling were allowed to lapse.

South Carolina legislators now are crafting bills to allow such drilling while trying to ensure the state gets a cut of any drilling lease royalties.

But Lowcountry conservationists say those efforts are a waste of time, and that bill or no bill, the federal government will decide whether drilling occurs off the South Carolina coast. That's because if there is any oil or natural gas, it's many miles beyond the state's three-mile offshore jurisdiction. And what's out there probably is not worth a company's drilling efforts, according to conservationists and researchers.

"South Carolina is incredibly limited in the 'say-so' we have in any of this," said Hamilton Davis, project manager for the nonprofit Coastal Conservation League. "These bills that are being considered in the state House this year are not necessarily within the state's authority to decide. This is a federal permitting process."

The Minerals Management Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Interior that manages offshore programs, released its proposal for possible oil and gas drilling sites earlier this month. The plan is open to public comment for 60 days and can be viewed at www.mms.gov.

While South Carolina, Georgia and Florida are listed as possible drilling sites, the federal agency ranks them low for potential output and economic value. It also ranks them No. 1 in environmental sensitivity compared to other states along the Eastern seaboard.

If the federal plan is approved, it would sell leases off most of the Atlantic coast between 2010 and 2015. Many areas, including some off of the state coast, were closed to drilling until presidential and congressional moratoriums expired in mid-2008.

If any oil or natural gas exists off South Carolina, it would be at least 50 miles away from most of the coast and about 75 miles from Hilton Head Island, said Mitchell Colgan, chairman of the department of geology and environmental geosciences at the College of Charleston.

"There is no oil that we can see off of the coast," he said. "There is no indication both from the drilling test wells plus looking at the seismic data that indicate any potential for offshore oil off the coast of South Carolina."

THE S.C. PROPOSALS

In Columbia, lawmakers have proposed bills that would:

• Allow offshore drilling in state waters with a permit from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control

• Require those licensed to pay the full costs associated with any spill or leak

• Divide royalties from drilling lease sales between the S.C. Department of Transportation and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources

LEGISLATORS VOICE SUPPORT

Beaufort County legislators -- Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, and Reps. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, Richard Chalk, R-Hilton Head Island, and Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort -- say they support exploratory efforts to find more energy sources in areas where the resources exist and urge revenues be shared fairly with South Carolina.