Press Release
January 5, 2025
Small businesses applaud President Biden’s expected offshore oil ban
Ten-year effort to ban oil exploration and drilling to end in victory
Columbia, SC—President Biden is expected to permanently ban offshore oil drilling along the Atlantic and other areas. The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce has been leading the business-fight against offshore oil not only along its coast but the entire Atlantic Coast.
“In January of 2015, we first officially came out in opposition to oil exploration and drilling in the Atlantic,” said Frank Knapp Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. “Oil exploration and drilling was a severe threat to the small business tourism and commercial fishing economy, not only of our state but the entire East Coast. So, we took on the Obama Administration and Trump Administration and held off the oil industry’s efforts temporarily untill now.”
(An overview of the Small Business Chamber’s efforts can be found here.)
Highlights of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber’s efforts included:
–In 2016 forming the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast, which grew to over 42,000 businesses.
–In 2018 filing a federal lawsuit with 16 South Carolina municipalities to successfully oppose Trump Administration permits to explore for oil in the Atlantic.
–In 2019 launching a successful campaign to have all Democratic Presidential candidates pledge to use an executive order on the first day in office to ban new offshore oil drilling leases. President Biden made this campaign commitment and kept it on Day One of his Presidency.
–In August of 2024, Mr. Knapp had opinion editorials in South Carolina and Florida newspapers calling on President Biden to cement his legacy on protecting the Atlantic Coast from offshore drilling by using a provision of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
“Small businesses are very appreciative of President Biden’s continued support and actions to protect the Atlantic Coast from offshore oil drilling,” said Mr. Knapp. “Our local coastal economies will now be able to grow without fear of their beaches being covered with oil.”
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Contact:
Frank Knapp
fknapp@scsbc.org
803-600-6874 cell