Local officials taking action
Filed Under Campbell, Caucus, Massey, Top News | Leave a Comment
Legislator to convene study committee to analyze effects on S.C.
The federal moratorium on new offshore drilling sits just days short of expiring as state legislators discussed plans Thursday to position South Carolina to tap its resources.
Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Goose Creek, said he is preparing to call a meeting of a state study committee to come up with answers to some basic questions: How extensive are oil and natural gas reserves along the state’s 187 miles of coastline, and is it worth it to drill?
“With the cost of energy where it is today, we need to make a determination from a South Carolina perspective about what’s available to us and what the inherent dangers are,” said Campbell, who is co-chairing the 20-member study committee alongside Rep. Michael Thompson, R-Anderson.
Campbell is a retired Alcoa executive and a chemical engineer.
The committee, which was established by legislation passed in 2007, is expected to meet next month and has a goal of preparing a report for the Legislature by the end of November.
First, the members must be briefed on what congressional directive is in place after the ban expires Tuesday and ask experts how much oil and gas exists off the coast, Campbell said. Next, they need to know what implications drilling could have on the state’s environment and on the its tourism industry, he said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, is calling for another simultaneous approach. He is petitioning the U.S. Department of the Interior to include South Carolina in its upcoming five-year offshore drilling plan. He wants others to join him.
The agency, which controls leases in federal-controlled waters, is in the preliminary stages of preparing its next plan, which would run from 2010 to 2015.
“The national moratorium is set to expire next week,” Massey said. “With that deadline looming, it is a good time for us to get involved in the process.”
Ben Moore, energy and climate program director for the Coastal Conservation League, cautioned the state’s officials to conduct a rigorous cost-benefit analysis before they endorse a plan for offshore drilling, should it become an option.
By Yvonne Wenger
The Post and Courier
September 26, 2008
Effort to force roll calls begins
Filed Under Campbell, Caucus, Cleary, Grooms, McConnell, Top News | Leave a Comment
Few of lawmakers’ votes are recorded
A lack of recorded votes by the House and Senate is the most critical issue facing democracy in the state, Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, said Wednesday.
She was joined by Gov. Mark Sanford and Reps. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington, and Nathan Ballentine, R-Irmo, after the group spent the day traveling the state to call attention to the matter.
“We need the public to understand that this is a fight,” Landess said. Her conservative think tank put out a study in August that found the House took roll-call votes on 8 percent of the bills that became law this year, while the Senate did so only 1 percent of the time. Read more
Sales tax referendum sought in Berkeley
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Officials on Monday unveiled a minimum of nine road projects that would benefit if Berkeley voters approve a seven-year, 1-cent sales tax increase in November.
The Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce’s proposal includes large, multimillion-dollar projects in high-growth areas and paving projects in the hinterlands.
Officials hope including projects in all parts of the county will persuade residents to vote for the tax, which would raise between $15 million and $17 million a year for seven years. Read more
S.C. Senate aims to spur Congress to act on immigration
Filed Under Campbell, Caucus, Grooms, McConnell, Scott, Top News | 2 Comments
As part of a multifaceted approach to illegal immigration, the state Senate on Wednesday issued a call for a national constitutional convention in a strategy aimed at forcing Congress to act.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell first introduced the concept in October after Washington negotiators failed to agree on a new immigration policy. The goal is not to see a convention convene, McConnell said. Rather, it’s to pressure Congress.
“Our hope is that this will be a call that will start to gain steam across America and it will put some heat under Congress and they will do what they’ve been sent there to do,” said McConnell, R-Charleston.
