North Carolina on notice that oil rigs may be in its future

North Carolina's legislators expressed cautious support for President Barack Obama's proposal last week to open the Atlantic coastline to offshore drilling.

But state Sen. Marc Basnight said he was reminded of the black specks he saw on a Gulf Coast beach: Along the tide line on the sand, the place where a beachcomber would find some shells, there was what looked like black dirt.

"You could gather it up in your hand and rub it and warm it up," the Manteo Democrat recalled last week. Within seconds, he said, the material became oily.

That's what Basnight said he worries could happen to Outer Banks beaches, which are in the region between Delaware and Florida that Obama proposed opening up.

"I would assume we would want to be protected from that if it came from the oil rigs," Basnight said. "If something bad were to occur with a spill, and beaches were shut down and people had to leave the Outer Banks... it is a major concern in that you could lose everything you ever worked for."

But Basnight said he would not oppose drilling if "built-in protections" were provided to prevent environmental damage.

On Tuesday, Obama endorsed oil and natural-gas drilling at least 50 miles off the Outer Continental Shelf of Virginia.

He also said offshore drilling might be allowed off North Carolina and other Southern states.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said in a statement that she also is concerned about protection of the state's natural and economic resources if drilling were to happen.

Officials from Dare County have not yet weighed in on the issue, but U.S. Sens. Richard Burr, a Republican, and Kay Hagan, a Democrat, have expressed qualified support.

"If resources off the coast of North Carolina can be produced responsibly," Burr said in a statement, "they should be part of the solution."

Hagan said drilling alone is "not the answer to our energy challenges" and that precautions must be taken to ensure that beaches and the fishing industry are not threatened.

In the late 1980s, there was stiff resistance from residents and local, state and federal officials to a proposal from Mobil Oil Corp. to explore lease units 45 miles off Hatteras. The exploration never happened, but 10 years later, Chevron USA said it was interested in the same area. The company later lost interest, and the leases were allowed to expire.

Vocal Outer Banks-based groups continue to oppose offshore drilling.

Michael McOwen, president of LegaSea, an Outer Banks-based anti-drilling group that formed to fight Mobil, said he was disappointed that the issue "continues to raise its ugly head."

Whether it's natural-gas or oil exploration or production, he said, the coastline's natural resources would be sullied.

"We're talking about putting heavy industry off our coasts with substantial pollutants," said McOwen, president of Destination Commerce Corp., which creates tourism publications.

McOwen said the barrier islands wouldn't escape the risks even if exploration were limited to the waters of its northern neighbor.

"We're downstream from Virginia," he said. "The Labrador Current comes straight from Virginia to our beaches."

While LegaSea has been mostly inactive in recent years, the Surf-rider Foundation's Outer Banks chapter has taken the lead in opposition to drilling off North Carolina.

Matt Walker, co-chair of Surfrider, said oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 during Hurricanes Rita and Katrina indicate that the Outer Banks' multimillion-dollar tourism economy and the ocean ecology could suffer long-term damage if drilling is allowed.

"To me," Walker said, "it comes down to this: What are you willing to risk? And for what?

"I think the state needs to look at where it get its money from."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com