Both governors of the Carolinas recently called on the Trump administration to maintain its moratorium on offshore drilling off their coasts.
In a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said because of the significant risks associated with offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production off the Carolina coasts, every North Carolina and South Carolina coastal municipality has passed a resolution opposing offshore drilling and seismic testing.
They asked BOEM to respect the wishes of those coastal communities and reaffirm President Donald Trump’s decision to protect the coastlines and the industries they support.
In 2020, President Trump issued a memo protecting the waters off the coast of North and South Carolina from leasing until June 30, 2032, and Stein and McMaster are urging the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to remove North and South Carolina’s outer continental shelf lands from consideration.
