Coastal Review Online January 18, 2019 by Staff Report CHARLESTON, S.C. – A federal judge here ruled Friday that work to issue permits for offshore seismic exploration for oil and natural gas cannot continue until the partial federal government shutdown ends. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, in his ruling on…
Opinion: Why I joined lawsuit to stop seismic testing off S.C. coast
Post and Courier January 20, 2019 BY ALAN WILSON, SC Attorney General I recently received a lot of attention when I joined a lawsuit to block seismic testing off the coast of South Carolina, so I wanted to explain my reasoning. People who support offshore exploration see it as a…
SC court rules permits can’t go out for seismic testing offshore
Post and Courier January 18, 2019 By Bo Petersen Work can’t go forward on issuing permits for offshore seismic testing until the federal shutdown ends, a federal judge in Charleston ruled Friday. The ruling came in response to a motion filed by several conservation, municipal and business interests opposing the…
Judge blocks Trump administration from processing permits for offshore seismic tests
The State St. Augustine Record January 18, 2019 By Stuart Leavenworth WASHINGTON A federal judge in South Carolina on Friday blocked the Trump administration from processing seismic testing permits for offshore oil drilling, a setback for the administration’s efforts to assist energy companies during the partial government shutdown. U.S. District…
Federal Judge Temporarily Shuts Down Administration’s Work on Seismic Permits. Government shutdown has at least one positive result.
Even without a new budget for the department, the Trump Administration had called employees at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) back to work. Officials said that it was critical for BOEM to continue to process the permits from five seismic testing companies that want to airgun blast the…
SC leaders learn how utility deregulation works in other states
South Carolina Radio Network January 17, 2019 By Renee Sexton A group of utility leaders, state agency representatives and political leaders learned Wednesday how energy deregulation has worked in other states. The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce hosted a public educational forum Thursday with utility and economic experts to…
Forum explores options to decrease utility rates
WACH-TV January 16, 2019 by Shante Sumpter COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH) – The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is starting the discussion to decrease utility rates. The group hosted a forum to see how a deregulated utility market might look and serve ratepayers. Organizers say the market is undergoing…
PSC: SCE&G acted imprudently
Today the Public Service Commission reversed its December 21, 2018, Order and has found that SCE&G executives did act imprudently starting on March 12, 2015. Numerous intervening parties, including myself, filed petitions to the PSC before the end of last year calling the PSC failure to find imprudence by SCE&G…
Editorial: S.C. has no future in oil
Post and Courier January 13, 2019 Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson are welcome additions to a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from allowing oil exploration off the South Carolina coast. There is absolutely no place here for a risky industry that could irreparably harm the…
Spate of Fed, State Bills Would Block Drilling
Coastal Review January 11, 2019 By Mark Hibbs WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the Trump administration continues its push to open more U.S. coastal waters to offshore drilling, House Democrats introduced this week a barrage of bills that together would block new drilling for oil and natural gas on nearly all…