June 16 (Reuters) – The Republican governor of South Carolina appealed to the Trump administration on Monday to leave his state out of an impending plan to increase offshore oil and gas production.
The letter comes as the administration wraps up a 45-day request for public input into a federal offshore oil and gas leasing program that could include new zones in the Arctic and elsewhere to maximize domestic energy development.
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The current five-year plan, developed by the administration of former President Joe Biden, includes just three sales of oil and gas development rights in the Gulf of Mexico. Previous five-year offshore lease programs, which are mandated by Congress, have ranged between 11 and 41 sales.
Governor Henry McMaster said in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that South Carolina could not afford to jeopardize its $29 billion tourism industry, which includes popular destinations like Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach.
“South Carolina’s coastline is one of the most pristine in the country, and offshore drilling is simply not in its best interest,” McMaster said in the letter.
In a separate letter to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Mangement sent jointly with North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Josh Stein, the two governors urged the administration to preserve a ban on drilling off their coasts that President Donald Trump put in place during his first term.
“We ask you to respect the wishes of our states and our coastal communities and re-affirm President Trump’s decision to protect our coastlines and the industries they support,” Stein and McMaster said in their letter to BOEM, which oversees offshore energy development for the Interior Department.
Trump issued the ban, which is in effect until 2032, days before the 2020 presidential election as he sought to win over voters. An earlier plan by his administration to expand offshore drilling along many U.S. coastlines, including the Eastern seaboard, received strong opposition from both Republican and Democratic states.
Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Mark Porter
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