‘Drill, baby, drill’ doesn’t work in SC anymore, and Trump needs to hear it | Opinion
Don’t mess with South Carolina.
That’s one way to look at the gathering Wednesday in Columbia.
South Carolina is fighting back against a federal government that wants to steamroll the wishes of more than 25 local governments, the governor, the state attorney general, the state’s $20 billion tourism industry, its natural assets, and, above all, its people.
The fight is against offshore drilling for oil and gas.
And, in case you are as deaf as Washington, D.C., leadership, the old “Drill, baby, drill” cry is gone, baby, gone in South Carolina.
Just ask one Katie Arrington, who didn’t get the memo in time to spare her from an historic defeat to a Democrat in our own First Congressional District.
She thought she was supposed to parrot, “Drill, baby, drill.” But Arrington was schooled, baby, schooled by Joe Cunningham, who opposed it in the campaign and in Washington since his upset win. The whole nation got to see that South Carolina’s coast doesn’t take kindly to oil spills on the horizon.
Well, everyone saw it but President Donald Trump, whose administration pushed for oil drilling off the Southeast coast until stopped by a court ruling that it is appealing.
South Carolina’s pushback started during the Barack Obama administration, right here in Beaufort with Mayor Billy Keyserling and the City Council saying oil drilling is incompatible to the coastal economy and culture.
The Obama administration backed off its plan to open the coast to oil and gas exploration and leases after the uprising of the people. But the Trump administration shows the battle is never over.
On Wednesday morning, the state fights back again, this time in an office building of the South Carolina Senate.
Republican state Sen. Chip Campsen of Charleston, whose district covers half the state’s coastline and includes part of Beaufort County, has 31 cosponsors on a bill that would make it difficult for the oil and gas industry to get a toehold on our beaches, pluff mud and rivers.
Senate Bill 870 would “provide that the Department of Health and Environmental Control is prohibited from approving a plan, license, or permit application for infrastructure used to facilitate the transportation of crude oil or natural gas from the Atlantic Ocean into this state.”
In this way, the state can control its own destiny as best as it can.
A public hearing on the bill is to be held Wednesday morning by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee’s Environmental Subcommittee.
It is the first step toward making permanent a one-year ban on oil industry infrastructure that the legislature overwhelmingly approved last spring as a provision in the state budget.
Support for Campsen’s bill and similar legislation in the House of Representatives is supported by all Beaufort County legislators.
Support for the bill is bipartisan.
Gov. Henry McMaster, who was a prized early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, opposes offshore drilling. He mentioned it in last year’s State of the State address and this year’s executive budget summary.
South Carolina is fighting in court to prevent seismic testing of our ocean floors.
But there’s more to do, and this bill will help.
Washington needs to learn: Don’t mess with South Carolina.
