NC and SC governors unite against Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster joined together Monday asking the Trump administration not to lift its moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the two states’ coasts.
In a letter representing a bi-partisan allegiance – Stein is a Democrat, McMaster, a Republican – the two governors reminded the administration why President Donald Trump extended and expanded the moratorium on offshore drilling along the Atlantic Coast in 2020, during his first term.
“In 2021 alone, North and South Carolina’s coastal economy contributed $9.6 billion to the GDP, supported more than 125,000 jobs and provided $3.8 billion in wages, led by robust tourism and recreation, shipbuilding, fishing, and marine transportation industries,” the governors wrote to Kelly Hammerle, a national program manager for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s offshore oil and gas leasing program. “These industries, which are the economic lifeblood of our coastal communities, are also highly vulnerable to disruption from offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production.”
The two states have a combined 513 miles of ocean beaches and 6,251 miles of coastline, the governors said, which are home to more than 2,740,500 people and include such national wildlife refuges as Pea Island, Alligator River, Mackay Island, Pocosin Lakes, and Currituck in North Carolina, and Cape Romain, Ernest F. Hollings, ACE Basin, Santee, and Waccamaw in South Carolina.
Stein and McMaster cited the two states’ coastal economies, which they said generated $9.6 billion in income in 2021 alone from tourism, recreation, shipbuilding, fishing and marine transportation industries.
“These industries, which are the economic lifeblood of our coastal communities, are also highly vulnerable to disruption from offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production,” the governors said.
They also mentioned the military installations near both states’ coasts and said offshore oil and gas infrastructure, as well as the seismic testing used to determine where reserves might be located, could interfere with military operations and affect national security.
Oil and gas companies have been trying for decades
Mobil Oil and other companies became interested in exploring for oil and natural gas reserves in the 1980s, especially in the Outer Continental Shelf near Cape Hatteras.
The American Petroleum Institute, the country’s largest trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, has said drilling off the Carolinas’ coasts would provide tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars’ worth of spending in each state over 20 years.
President George H.W. Bush placed a 10-year moratorium on gas and oil drilling in areas, including off the North Carolina coast in 1990, and subsequent administrations extended that.
In 2018, during his first term, Trump’s administration proposed opening much of the Atlantic Coast to drilling, including off the coasts of North and South Carolina. In response, governors Stein and McMaster said, “every North Carolina and South Carolina coastal municipality has passed a resolution opposing offshore drilling and seismic testing. This position has been reaffirmed by other municipalities and counties, as well as state legislators and members of our Congressional delegations from both parties.”
So in 2020, Trump extended and expanded the moratorium to include areas off South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, through June 30, 2032.
President Trump back and forth on offshore drilling
Since his return to office in January 2025, Trump has claimed the U.S. faces an energy emergency and has again pushed to expand offshore drilling. The question now is whether oil and gas exploration would be allowed off North and South Carolina, or if their offshore waters would remain off-limits.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it would begin the process of preparing a new, 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Program, to manage offshore oil and gas exploration and production, and opened a 45-day public comment period that ended Monday.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of oil. In 2023, according to the agency, the U.S. produced almost 22 million gallons of oil per day, nearly twice the next-largest producer, Saudi Arabia.
“Since 2020, we are a net exporter,” said Braxton Davis, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation, a non-profit group that works to protect and restore the North Carolina coast. “In addition to that, there are a lot of existing leases that haven’t been developed in other areas, meaning there is unused capacity there. So we don’t see the need to expand the leases, especially into North Carolina.”
Davis said offshore exploration and drilling could harm commercial and recreational fishing, be detrimental to marine mammals and sully the beaches that draw visitors from around the world.
“Whenever you’re drilling, there are going to be leaks,” Davis said. “You have small-scale leaks and then you also have large-scale accidents like the Deepwater Horizon,” an explosion and fire on a BP drilling rig in 2010 that killed 11 workers and spewed more than 3 million gallons of oil into Gulf waters.
“The risk is just not worth the potential reward.”
More chances for public input
Hammerle said Monday her agency expects to receive heavy input on the proposal to open North and South Carolina’s offshore waters to drilling and exploration. Eventually, she said, comments will be available to view through the federal regulations.gov website, and they’ll be summarized for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Doug Burgum.
At least four lawsuits are working through the legal system to determine, among other things, whether the president has the authority to allow offshore drilling where it has been banned, or whether that must be done by Congress.
As the process moves along, Hammerle said, there will be additional opportunities for the public to comment, including if leases are offered for sale.
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 10:59 AM with the headline "NC and SC governors unite against Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan."
