Palmetto State political and environmental leaders say it’s too soon to know how serious the renewed threat of offshore oil drilling is for the South Carolina coast.

The Trump administration has officially put the issue under review at the federal level, according to federal officials. But in 2020, Trump signed an executive order that banned drilling off the South Atlantic seaboard through 2032. Now just five years later, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has started a long review process that could change that order — and replace the state’s famous slogan, “Smiling faces, beautiful places,” with “Drill, baby, drill.”

With a $30 billion tourist industry and some of the nation’s most pristine beaches and ocean ecosystems at stake, state leaders aren’t taking a wait-and-

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