By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | A presidential memorandum that halts offshore drilling and testing off South Carolina waters also puts an end to the burgeoning offshore wind industry, clean energy advocates say.
The memo initially seemed to be good news for conservationists: President Donald Trump signed earlier this month a memo halting new leases for offshore drilling exploration for South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida from July 1, 2022, until June 30, 2032.
Sure, it could easily be undone with another memo, it doesn’t apply to any current leases already issued and it wouldn’t stop seismic testing completely. But it was something and appeared to be in the direction South Carolina officials have pushed: putting an end to chants of “drill, baby, drill” in Palmetto waters.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s (SACE) Chris Carnevale of Charleston said he was “surprised” by the moratorium.
“When that came out, my brain was not even thinking about offshore wind,” he said.
Turns out, that got banned too, Bloomberg News reported this week.
“The withdrawal includes all energy leasing, including conventional and renewable energy, beginning on July 1, 2022,” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management spokeswoman Tracey Moriarty told Bloomberg News.
South Carolina has been hailed as a potential offshore wind energy leader in recent years. A 2019 report said the state could land a $70 billion industry, create thousands of jobs, and generate more power than its consumers needed.
“South Carolina has worked for over a decade to get prepared for offshore wind energy,” Carnevale said. “We have a number of businesses in South Carolina that are in the wind energy supply chain.”
North Charleston is home to a wind turbine research center with Clemson University, making it a key spot for wind power innovation.
“Delaying or halting development of local offshore wind energy could mean potentially less of a developing local market for the facility,” said SACE’s Jennifer S. Rennicks of Asheville.
Carnevale said the Trump memo shows that elections have consequences.
“(The ban) can be undone as easily as it was done,” Carnevale said. “With a stroke of a pen, he can just change it … It is in the hands of the president.”
In other news:
Witness signatures not* required on absentee ballots. The asterisk says it all: The fight over whether witness signatures will be required on absentee ballots in South Carolina continued this week. It landed in The Washington Post and on the Supreme Court of the United States blog. As of Friday morning: You don’t need a witness signature on your absentee ballot, but perhaps you should consider this popular wisdom: “It’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”
Legislature sees (slightly) fewer old white guys over five years. Older white men make up 6.2 percent of South Carolina’s population (calculation: 18.2 percent of S.C. population is over 65, 68.6 percent is white and 49.4 percent is male) and yet make up nearly 64 percent of the state legislature. But that number has been changing. In 2015, the General Assembly was 86 percent male, 76 percent white and 67 percent were born before 1965. Five years later, it’s now 84 percent male, 74 percent white and 54 percent were born before 1965. A 2 percent change reflects about three or four members. At this rate, the state will see a legislature reflecting the population in … forever away. See more about the somewhat changing demographics here.
Report says salary changes needed to retain teachers. A new report from the Southern Regional Education Board found states should continue to raise teacher pay, and improve benefits and other types of support, particularly in the pandemic. “Even while state revenues lag during the pandemic, states and schools can take immediate steps to support educators and keep teacher shortages from worsening,” the report said. Read the report here.
McMaster signs firefighter bill. Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill on Tuesday that will support firefighters diagnosed with cancer. Read more.
Judge stops payment of $75M of SRS funds to law firms. S.C. Circuit Court Judge Debra McCaslin has temporarily blocked private attorneys from receiving $75 million of a settlement with the federal government over nuclear material at the Savannah River Site. Read more.
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