Brunswick County should join oil exploration opposition

I fully understand that, in our two states with Republican governors and Republican majority legislatures, there should be loyalty to our governor's positions. It is usually the right thing to do for local elected officials, especially when they are also mostly Republicans, to support their parties' positions, especially on statewide issues.

In local communities, however, local issues do require that local officials occasionally take stands in the interests of their own constituents that may be different from the position of the governors. Offshore drilling, and especially sesmic testing exploration, is such an issue.

Offshore seismic testing for oil and gas, to find out if there are places along our territorial waters where drilling for oil and gas might be feasible, is opposed, by declaration of all of the coastal communities and all of the coastal counties in South Carolina and all but four coastal towns and one coastal county in North Carolina. Brunswick County, in North Carolina, with its beautiful beaches and thriving commercial and recreational fishing industries, has not signed on to ask that our state not allow this testing to occur.

Destroying our shores and ocean is not a good way for our states or our country to help solve the energy crisis or improve our economy. It is being suggested by the oil Industry that there may be great amounts of oil beneath our local oceans, but these tests are both a serious gamble as to whether there will be enough oil to make drilling economically possible and the tests themselves are extremely injurious to fish and marine mammals.

Recently, the testing in the Arctic Reserve showed that drilling there would not be economically feasible and was shut down. Even if the tests did show possible rich oil and gas reserves, even ignoring the great damage to our fish and marine mammals from the tests, there could be even more disaster if there were an oil spill such as the Gulf Coast experienced. The revenues to be gained by having oil to use would also mean the possible total destruction of our fishing industry, our recreational areas, our property values and our beaches. It is just not worth the risk.

Brunswick County should stand with both our states' coastal communities up and down our coast and pass the Resolution asking the governor of North Carolina (as did the people of South Carolina), to protect us by not allowing this testing to start. It's the right thing to do. This is not a partisan issue. Both our two states and the whole East Coast are threatened. And our whole country should also be declaring opposition to this reckless search for this one source of energy when there are several other alternatives that are better, cleaner and more economical.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 8:25 AM with the headline "Brunswick County should join oil exploration opposition."