Offshore drilling still a possibility for South Carolina's future

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Think the election of President Obama has killed oil drilling off South Carolina's coast? Well, it didn't.

South Carolina's Natural Gas Exploration Feasibility Committee met earlier this month to discuss the possibility of establishing oilrigs off South Carolina's shore.

The oil crisis of Summer 2008 forced South Carolina state officials to ponder the possibility of drilling off the SC shore, but with the gas price deflation and the recent presidential election the topic was mute until now.

According to information gleaned from The Charleston City Paper, pretty much every member of the committee is on board the "drilling train" except for Hamilton Davis, a project manager for the Coastal Conservation League.

The Charleston City Paper quoted him in their story:
These bills are a political move to give the pretense that they're actually doing something about energy in South Carolina. We've been preparing ourselves for something that just simply isn’t going to happen. This is going to turn out to be a colossal waste of time and resources for the state.

It seems the committee will most likely decide to proceed with drilling, but they will have to wait before taking any action, because the U.S. Secretary of the Interior postponed the federal plan for offshore drilling six months.

Check out this week's issue of The Charleston City Paper for the story.