PRESS RELEASE
Date: September 5, 2019
From: South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce
Subject: Kamala Harris Onboard with Day One Action Plan on Offshore Drilling
Contact: Frank Knapp, President/CEO, 803-252-5733 (w), 803-600-6874 (c),
fknapp@scsbc.org
Columbia, SC—With Hurricane Dorian demonstrating the destructive fury awaiting any oil drilling rigs that the Trump Administration wishes for the Atlantic Coast, six Democratic presidential candidates have declared that on their first day in office they would issue an executive order to protect the East Coast from such an oil misadventure.
Senator Kamala Harris rolled out her extensive climate plan yesterday indicating that she would also be “immediately halting all new fossil fuel leases on federal lands and waters” upon being sworn in as President. This would be done, according to campaign staff, via an executive order on her first day in office.
Senator Harris joins Joe Biden, Corey Booker, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in committing to this Day One action plan to ban offshore drilling in our Atlantic.
“We all know the inevitable oil spills and leaks of offshore drilling that would threaten our coastal tourism, commercial fishing and recreation economies,” said Frank Knapp Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce (SCSBCC). “But for the first time we have had a Category 5 hurricane four years in a row off our Atlantic Coast with the strongest peak sustained winds every recorded. Hurricanes will continue to get stronger. To see what would happen to any oil rigs in the path of such a monster storm we only have to look at the destruction of structures in the Bahamas where Hurricane Dorian hit. A giant oil disaster would be waiting for the Atlantic Coast every hurricane season under Trump’s offshore oil plans.”
“We applaud Senator Harris on her commitment to protecting the Atlantic Coast marine life and coastal economies by using the executive order tool that would be available to her.”
The SCSBCC has been a leading business organization on the Atlantic Coast fighting the Trump Administration’s plan for offshore oil exploration and drilling in the Atlantic. In April of this year the organization proposed the Day One action plan as a litmus test, a first-day executive order banning all new oil drilling leases on public lands and waters, that the Democratic candidates for President must pass ‘if they hope to be victorious in coastal states’.
“We will continue to encourage all the Democratic presidential candidates to commit to the Day One action plan,” said Knapp. “Some candidates like Andrew Yang, Julian Castro and Pete Buttigieg, who have proposed banning new oil drilling leases on public lands and waters, still need to commit to the essential use of an executive order on their first day in office to turn aspirational words into immediate action.”
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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.