OUTER BANKS, N.C. — The potential for offshore drilling of oil and gas is now in the cards along both the east and west coast of the United States. The Department of the Interior is currently in the public comment period for the "Eleventh National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program." It's been met with mixed reviews in the Outer Banks.

“The North Labyrinth current that runs right across the Outer Banks, it'll pull all that to our beaches. And so we could have that potential of losing our beaches for tourism and also for our fishing industry as well," said Steve House, vice-chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, while explaining what he believes could happen if an oil spill from an offshore drilling rig hit the Outer Banks.

He continued, “The tourism is $2.2

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