Perhaps Rep. Mark Sanford is a bellwether for oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
The South Carolina Republican proposed an amendment earlier this month to a House spending bill that would block Atlantic drilling. Of the states where the Obama administration has allowed drilling off their coasts, Sanford is the only GOP lawmaker who opposes the idea.
“They don’t live on the coast,” Sanford told the Washington Examiner of Republicans who back offshore drilling, later adding, “It wasn’t about being against offshore from an oil or technology standpoint. It was about how do you allow locals more voice in that process?”
East Coast and Southeast lawmakers haven’t had to think about Atlantic drilling for decades, since oil and gas exploration stopped there in the 1980s. But it could restart soon, as the Obama administration in January proposed holding a lease sale as early as 2021 for a plot off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia as part of the administration’s five-year offshore drilling plan.
The governors of all those states want offshore drilling. So, too, do most of their federal lawmakers.
“I would say that Mark Sanford is not representative of the whole state,” said Nikki Martin, president of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, a trade group for companies that test the ocean floor for mineral deposits.
That’s certainly true. A May poll by industry group Consumers Energy Alliance found 85 percent of the state supports offshore drilling, viewing it as a potential boon to the economy. The Palmetto State would be the second-biggest beneficiary from Atlantic drilling behind North Carolina in terms of jobs and economic growth, adding 35,569 jobs by 2035 and adding $2.7 billion annually to the economy, according to a Quest Offshore Resources study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute.
Environmental groups have been stirring coastal communities to reject seismic testing, a process that uses sonar blasts to scan for oil and gas deposits under the ocean floor, as the latest ploy to stop drilling. The groups say the process disturbs and kills marine life. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says it might affect individual animals, but studies so far show seismic testing hasn’t had a population-wide impact on species.
Environment America and Oceana, for example, are making connections with communities that fear drilling would imperil their fishing and tourism industries.
“For 30 years this really hasn’t been considered in the Atlantic, and for coastal communities it wasn’t part of their awareness,” Claire Douglass, a campaign director for Oceana, told the Examiner.
“I think definitely there’s been a concerted effort by some of the groups to get their supporters out and oppose anything they can,” Andy Radford, offshore policy adviser with the American Petroleum Institute, told the Examiner.
Despite the environmentalists’ efforts, Sanford says the opposition isn’t the result of any lobbying efforts.
Sanford says he’s not concerned about whether Atlantic drilling would help lock in climate change. Nor does he worry about an oil spill, as he notes the Gulf Stream would carry any spillage up the coast to the Northeast. And as for a plot by environmentalists to foment rabble rousers as an extension of the not-in-my-backyard protests springing up across the country to stop energy development? He’s not buying it.
“It’s been fairly indigenous,” Sanford said. “Nobody is going to come in from outside and tell you — I mean, this was a group that was wheeling out cannons a little more than a hundred years ago and shooting at Fort Sumter. I would say there is an independent streak in the voter profile on the coast of South Carolina that bends green as it relates to environmental issues.”
Coastal mayors pressed Sanford and the state government to resist offshore drilling. Sanford, a former offshore drilling advocate, sided with their pleas. But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s administration said offshore drilling wouldn’t interfere with the state’s coastal zone management program, which allowed seismic testing to proceed.
Nine communities in Sanford’s district have passed resolutions opposing offshore drilling. He worries about the infrastructure buildup required to service the drilling and is concerned results from seismic testing of the ocean floor won’t be publicly available.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has approved one seismic testing permit, with seven others pending, in a process that drilling proponents say is going too slow. But oceanside communities aren’t letting up in trying to derail the permits.
“At this point in time the tactics have very much been low-key through local governments. The minute one of those ships shows up and the public sees that it’s real and it’s here, I think you will see people in the streets,” said Bill Keyserling, mayor of the beach town of Beaufort, S.C.
But Abigail Ross Hopper, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said the debate has largely fallen around whether fossil fuels should be part of the nation’s energy mix rather than “NIMBY” concerns.
“It is a thoughtful conversation about where and how much and what kind of energy we need,” she told reporters after a House hearing last week.
Keyserling, a former aide to ex-Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., said he is concerned that unlocking more oil and gas off the coast would further contribute to climate change.
“I’m working on rising sea levels, and it’s hard to get people to think about what might happen in 2100 when my city may be six feet under water,” Keyserling said. “But as a responsible public official, I have to understand it.”
