Opinion

Editorial: Fossil fuel madness threatens coastal economy

Wednesday, March 28, 2018 -- North Carolina needs to drop its foolish moratorium on offshore wind development. It is past time to favor the development of clean energy resources, protect the coast's economy and pristine beaches and abandon fruitless schemes for offshore drilling.

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Offshore Wind Farm
CBC Editorial: Wednesday, March 28, 2018; Editorial # 8283
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company
The United States is the world’s largest producer of petroleum and natural gas and has been since 2009 – ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Domestic production has reached the point where it is exporting – yes selling to foreign nations – nearly a million barrels of crude a day. Last year the nation exported more natural gas than it imported.

There is little demonstrable need to embark on exploration for oil and gas off of North Carolina’s coast – as President Donald Trump has proposed. It is certainly not worth the very real risk to the crucial tourism industry that sustains the economy of many coastal families and their communities.

On the Outer Banks, the issue has erupted in a Republican primary battle over a seat in the state House of Representatives. Incumbent Beverly Boswell attacked her challenger, Currituck County Commission Chair Bobby Hanig, linking him to “environmental extremist types” who oppose oil and gas exploration off much of the Atlantic coast.

Hanig, earlier this month, joined four other commissioners in a 5-1 vote to oppose off shore seismic testing and drilling for oil and gas – based on the future of Currituck county’s massive tourism industry. “I myself am not willing to take a chance on someone losing their job for financial gain because of some oil being drilled offshore,” he said.  This is not partisan, it is common sense and concern for constituents.

There is hardly a community on the state’s coast – regardless of the partisan make-up – that has not voiced opposition to the oil and gas exploration efforts. In Brunswick County, where more than a dozen municipalities have adopted resolutions opposing offshore drilling, five county commissioners are Republican. The commission wouldn’t take a stand against offshore drilling. A week ago it voted 4-1 not to deal with it at all – a vote that came two months after commissioners voted 3-2 to RESCIND a resolution supporting offshore drilling.

Gov. Roy Cooper has threatened to sue the federal government if the state isn’t made exempt from Trump’s drilling plan.

There are very real concerns over a disaster like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with a discharge of 4.9 million barrels of oil that caused billions of dollars in environmental damage and billions more in losses to gulf coast tourism.

The risks to the coast’s crucial tourism economy and vulnerable environment are far too great compared to the relatively meager payoff on the remote chance there is oil and gas worth going after.

What our state and local officials need to focus on is development of a far safer and less expensive energy resource sitting off the coast – the wind. It is a fact that North Carolina is the top state on the east coast for wind energy development.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy management has already awarded Avengrid Renewables – the operators of the Amazon Wind Farm in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties – the right to develop a wind farm off the coast from Kitty Hawk. Two other areas, off the coast from Wilmington, have also been identified by federal officials for potential wind development.

North Carolina needs to drop its foolish moratorium on offshore wind development. It is past time to favor the development of clean energy resources, protect the coast’s economy and pristine beaches and abandon fruitless schemes for offshore drilling.

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