Environment debated by SC gubernatorial hopefuls

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Offshore oil drilling, wind and nuclear power and global warming brought together five Democrat and five Republican candidates for governor in an unusual bipartisan debate Tuesday.

If "the issue is global warming, well some folks say it's global cooling," Republican state Sen. Larry Grooms of Bonneau said. He noted the fossil record might show the Orangeburg auditorium where the debate was held was underwater eons ago.

"Did man contribute to the ocean receding all the way back to Charleston? Probably not. Is man contributing to global cooling or global warming right now? I think the debate should continue," Grooms said at South Carolina ETV's debate, "The Big Picture Election Special: Spotlight on the Candidates."

Other candidates had no doubt on that score. "I think the science is clear that global warming does exist," said Democrat Dwight Drake, a Columbia lawyer. He noted he had no more appetite for "oil wars."

Grooms and other candidates, particularly Republicans, said addressing global warming concerns shouldn't come at the expense of forcing restrictions on businesses that would kill jobs. Instead, he called for incentives.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer called on creating an array of incentives that would eliminate corporate income taxes for "green" companies. So "we would be known as the green capitol of the world. ... It would be a great way to draw in investment throughout the world in South Carolina," Bauer said.

And state Education Superintendent Jim Rex, a Democrat, suggested harvesting the political season's rising winds. "Well, if we put a wind turbine in front of this stage, we could solve a lot of the energy needs of this state," Rex said.

The candidates said the state should try to harness wind and solar power. And even if that doesn't pan out, the state's poised to cash in on wind turbine manufacturing, Republican U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett said.

The greatest division between Democrats and Republicans during the debate arose on the issue of offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.

"Oil and beaches don't mix," said Democrat Mullins McLeod, a Charleston lawyer.

"They don't mix, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be drilling if there is oil there and we can do it safely," Republican Attorney General Henry McMaster said. No option should be taken off the table, he said, noting his support for expanded nuclear energy plant construction.

Rex noted none of the four dozen exploratory wells that have been drilled off the state's coast have yielded viable amounts of oil or natural gas. "There is no rationale for endangering our beaches or frankly any of our neighbors' beaches," Rex said.

"We would be fools — fools — to jeopardize the tourism industry of South Carolina for something that's not there in oil and we would be wasting our money," said Democrat state Sen. Vincent Sheheen.

But Barrett said the studies on offshore drilling are nearly 30 years old and companies are willing to take risks to discover it. "There may not be anything. But there again there may be something that is good for South Carolina in the tune of hundreds of millions of royalties, tens of thousands of jobs," Barrett said.