PRESS RELEASE
Date: November 5, 2019
From: South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce
Subject: Buttigieg Commits to Day One Action Plan on Offshore Drilling
Contact: Frank Knapp, President/CEO, 803-252-5733 (w), 803-600-6874 (c),
fknapp@scsbc.org
All top Democratic candidates now onboard
Columbia, SC—Mayor Pete Buttigieg yesterday signaled his commitment to use an executive order on his first day as President to ban all new oil drilling leases on public lands and waters. This Day One action plan now is the policy of all 6 of the top Democratic presidential candidates—Warren, Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, Harris, and Booker.
In April of this year the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce (SCSBCC), the leading business organization on the East Coast opposing offshore drilling in the Atlantic since 2015, launched a campaign to make this Day One action plan a litmus test for the Democratic presidential candidates.
“We commend Mayor Buttigieg and all the top Democratic candidates for making it clear to the voters and Big Oil that there will be no oil drilling in the Atlantic if they are elected,” said Frank Knapp Jr., president/CEO of the SCSBCC. “This is a critically important issue for voters up and down the East Coast and now they are assured that supporting any of these 6 candidates will bring an end to the threat of exploring and drilling for oil in the Atlantic.”
“By adopting this Day One action plan on new oil drilling leases, these candidates are demonstrating their commitment to protecting our small business tourism, commercial fishing and recreation local economies from the inevitable oil spills and leaks from offshore drilling,” said Knapp, who also co-founded and is past president/CEO of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast.
None of the other Democratic presidential candidates have made this Day One action plan part of their policy agendas.
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The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is a statewide advocacy organization founded in 2000. With over 10,000 small business and entrepreneur supporters, it has successfully worked to make South Carolina more small business friendly in areas such as healthcare, taxation, regulation, worker training, energy/conservation, workers’ compensation and economic development.