Offshore oil drilling: The 4 Dems on SC Feb. 29 ballot who vow to ban it | Opinion
Which of the active candidates on the S.C. Democratic primary ballot on Feb. 29 are serious about protecting the Atlantic Coast from the threat of offshore oil drilling and the inevitable spills and leaks that would pollute our ocean, estuaries and beaches?
Which ones would step up to block drilling off our shore immediately upon taking office?
The S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce wanted the primary voters to know. So, we launched a campaign last April to get the commitments we needed to demonstrate which candidates were serious about using the power of the presidency to protect our coastal tourism, commercial fishing and recreation economy and which were not.
The campaigns of all the announced Democratic candidates were contacted numerous times with the same request. Would they commit to a Day One Action Plan?
The plan would have the new president use an executive order on the first day in office to ban all new oil drilling leases on public land and waters. The Atlantic Coast would be protected from offshore drilling as long as the executive order was in place. No more lobbying or fighting with federal agencies but the effort to turn the ban into permanent law would go on.
The idea for the campaign sprung from a policy released by Elizabeth Warren the month before.
Our goal was to have all the Democratic candidates understand the vital importance of the issue to South Carolina. All could demonstrate that they weren’t going to wait for Congress to act on the issue. As president they had the power to immediately deliver to coastal states the protection we wanted.
There was another benefit to the Day One Action Plan.
It would be a clear message to the energy sector that the United States under a new administration would be serious about a clean-energy economy. It was time for energy companies to stop pushing to open the Atlantic to drilling and to start phasing out fossil fuels from their portfolios. Investing in renewable energy was the future.
After nine months of contacting, educating and, sometimes pestering the campaigns for a response, it is time to provide the results to the Feb. 29 primary voters.
As of Feb. 20, a total of eight candidates signed onto the Day One Action Plan but only four are still actively running and on the ballot in South Carolina.
Those active candidates committing to ban all new oil drilling leases on public land and waters are (in alphabetical order): Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
None of the other active Democratic presidential candidates on South Carolina’s ballot made the Day One Action Plan commitment, even after the extensive outreach to their campaigns.
Voters now know the candidates who are serious about protecting our Atlantic Coast from offshore drilling and using the power of the office they seek to push for a clean-energy future — Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren.
Frank Knapp Jr. is the president/CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 9:07 AM.