Cooper Asks Feds to Schedule More Hearings Before Drilling off N.C. Coast | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Dan Way, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

    Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday he sent a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke seeking to delay any decision on drilling or seismic testing of the ocean floor in search of oil and gas deposits off North Carolina's coast.

    Cooper wants the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold public hearings outside Raleigh in the coastal communities of Kill Devil Hills, Morehead City, and Wilmington. He has threatened a lawsuit if oil and gas drilling is permitted in Atlantic Ocean waters off of North Carolina's coast. For now, he's now asking for a 60-day extension of the federal public comment period.

    "This extension is necessary to allow for public hearings in coastal areas, and to give the public, especially the people of eastern North Carolina, sufficient time to submit comments on offshore drilling proposed for nearly the entire U.S. Outer Continental Shelf," Cooper said in the letter.

    Carolina Journal was unable to get comment from the American Petroleum Institute or the N.C. Petroleum Council about Cooper's opposition to drilling and testing, as well as the public comment period extension.

    In an email, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, chairman of the N.C. Energy Policy Council, told CJ, "To ask for another 60 days of public comment is delaying the inevitable decision of Gov. Cooper's administration to block any exploration off the coast of North Carolina. The time to start exploring was yesterday."*

    David McGowan, executive director of the N.C. Petroleum Council, has called Cooper's opposition premature because "necessary scientific research to make an informed decision" has not been done.

    U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-8th District, is a proponent of Atlantic oil and gas exploration and production.

    "It's about time we had a president who shares my desire to responsibly open North Carolina to energy exploration while protecting our beautiful coastal waters as well as our tourism and ocean industries," Hudson said when President Trump reversed Obama-era regulations in April, opening the Outer Continental Shelf for leasing.

    Economists have projected offshore drilling would create 15,000 to 17,000 jobs in North Carolina and add between $116 million and $171 million to annual state government revenue.

    Zinke yielded to Florida Gov. Rick Scott's request to exempt Florida from Atlantic drilling earlier this month. Scott made the case that Florida's beach industry, tourism, and coastline were unique as economic drivers for the state. Cooper requested the same exemption Jan. 20 in a phone call with Zinke.

    "If North Carolina is not exempt from offshore drilling, we will sue the federal government," Cooper said Jan. 22 during a visit to Wrightsville Beach.

    In a press release announcing his letter to Zinke, Cooper said at least 30 coastal communities have passed resolutions opposing drilling, joining hundreds of businesses and a bipartisan group of North Carolina's congressional delegation. He said the only scheduled public hearing - an open house in Raleigh - was not sufficient, and people living in the affected communities should have an opportunity to speak for the record.

    *This story was updated after initial publication to include Lt. Gov. Forest's comments