Feds hear warnings, applause about searching for oil off East Coast during SC meeting

Feds hear applause, warnings about East Coast oil

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Industry officials applauded the Obama administration plans to open East Coast waters to oil exploration Tuesday while coastal residents warned about dangers to wildlife, natural beauty and tourism.

“Let’s Forget About Dirty Oil,” read a sign held by Marilyn Blizard during a hearing by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service.

“If there is what happened in the Gulf recently, we have a very serious risk that will become a terrible disaster,” she warned during the public hearing attended by about 50 people.

She said spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico threaten the state’s $18.4 billion tourism industry.

The hearing came as Gulf residents worried an environmental disaster was brewing after an oil rig sank. It’s one of several meetings the Minerals Management Service is holding to compile an environmental impact statement on the search for oil, gas and other resources in the Atlantic.

The document, which won’t be final for two years, will gauge the impact of conducting such things as seismic, sidescan sonar and electromagnetic surveys of the ocean floor.

Joseph Christopher, a regional supervisor for the agency, said the study would be used to make decisions on searching for everything from fossil fuels to finding the best places to dredge sand or set up offshore wind farms.

The agency is taking public comment through May 17.

Some scientists have said there is not much oil and gas to be had off the East Coast. But Christopher said many of the surveys date to the 1980s and technology has changed.

“The current resource assessment is based on geophysical data that is over 30 years old,” said Richard Price of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, who called the study an important first step to finding more energy.

Price said during a half century of searches for oil in the Gulf and the Arctic, no scientific studies have found searches hurt marine mammals.

Michael Whatley, executive director of the Southeast Energy Alliance, a nonprofit business and trade group, said oil and natural gas could mean 2,250 new jobs for South Carolina.

He added a new generation of seismic studies will likely result in higher estimates of what is available off the coast.

But local resident Marsha Kite urged the agency to remember the coastal environment is fragile.

She warned if oil rigs go up in the Atlantic, there will be an accident, just as there has been in the Gulf of Mexico.

“A number of people have spoken to the economic benefits, but no one is speaking to the cost of mitigating the inevitable accident,” she said. “I understand there is money to be made, but I don’t think it’s worth the price we will pay.”

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Minerals Management Service: www.mms.gov