It's So Cute When SC Lawmakers Who Lick Trumps Ass Get All "Concerned" About Offshore Driling

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State Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort County told The Associated Press that he worries exploratory efforts including seismic testing could harm marine life, as well as the state's $20 billion tourism industry, much of which is based in and around the lush coastline. The third-term senator who served a delegate for Donald Trump at last year's GOP convention also said infrastructure needed for offshore exploratory efforts, including refineries and construction yards, "is dirty and highly industrial." "This is simply not compatible with coastal South Carolina," Davis said.

The proposal unveiled by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke would vastly expand offshore drilling and open up federal waters off the California coast for the first time in more than three decades. The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration off the East Coast from Georgia to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades. Many lawmakers in those states support offshore drilling, although the Democratic governors of North Carolina and Virginia oppose drilling off their state coasts.

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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, one of Trump's earliest and most ardent supporters, has been cool to drilling and seismic testing, telling an economic development group he had "serious deep concerns." In April, when the Trump administration announced it would revisit plans for more offshore exploration, McMaster said he wanted to protect natural resources and had questions about the proposals.

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But even South Carolina's congressional Republicans have been split on offshore drilling. Rep. Mark Sanford, the state's former two-term governor, called it a "big win" for coastal communities in January 2017 when the Obama administration blocked seismic surveys in the Atlantic. Months earlier, when federal officials barred oil drilling off the Atlantic Coast, Rep. Tom Rice — whose district includes Myrtle Beach, the heart of South Carolina's $19 billion tourism industry — said that, given discoveries of more onshore oil using technologies like hydraulic fracturing, "tapping new reserves in the Atlantic has become less and less feasible." On Thursday, Rice reiterated his previous opposition to drilling off South Carolina's coast.

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http://thetandd.com/business/drilling-plan-divides-s-c-leaders/article_2c5a624c-5ab7-5ab6-8f70-4483b6bcf948.html