June 9, 2025

Kelly Hammerle
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (VAM-LD)
45600 Woodland Road
Sterling, VA 20166-9216

Dear Ms. Hammerle,

I am writing to express my strong opposition to any efforts to including the South Atlantic zone in the 2025 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.

I represent South Carolina House District 108, which is a coastal district along Georgetown and Charleston counties. I’ve heard loud and clear from constituents that they do not want oil and gas drilling off the South Carolina coast because of the very real threat of a drilling disaster and the resulting severe environmental and economic harm it would bring to our area.

All of the municipalities in the district – Pawleys Island, McClellanville, Awendaw and Mt. Pleasant – plus Georgetown County, have passed resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas drilling. State and local leaders have come out against offshore drilling, including Governor Henry McMaster.

It’s clear the coastal areas of South Carolina are very concerned about the impacts of oil spills on the beaches, marine life and the tourism industry, and understandably have taken strong positions opposing drilling. There is no way offshore oil and gas drilling can be conducted that will guarantee no oil spills and no resulting environmental and economic disasters.

The district I represent has beautiful beaches, bays, and estuaries that attract tourism and are also ecologically important. They provide vital habitat for marine life and birds, particularly for juvenile offshore fish that are vital to our commercial and recreational fisheries.

Annually, in ports adjacent to and in the district, commercial fishermen land nearly 1 million pounds of snapper-grouper species. Our state has a $6 billion fishing industry that employs 80,000 people. Our commercial and recreational fishing industries cannot afford an oil spill disaster.

With tourism producing nearly $20 billion and providing one in ten South Carolinians with jobs, we cannot afford to risk harming such a major facet of our economy by playing Russian roulette with oil rigs off our coast. Sooner or later there will be a bullet in the chamber in the form of a major oil spill disaster.

There is simply no place along our coast where drilling makes sense. The short-term monetary benefit is not worth the long-term risks that our communities face.

Sincerely,

Representative Lee Hewitt