Offshore drilling delay won't hurt North Carolina

President Barack Obama’s decision to steer new offshore oil exploration away from North Carolina stirred two very different responses from Republican governors in neighboring states.

N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory expressed his disappointment loudly and clearly. McCrory has long championed offshore exploration and drilling and the potential new industries and jobs that might come with it. But U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., expressed his appreciation for the decision, citing the concerns of constituents in coastal towns and resorts on the South Carolina shore.

Your opinion of which of the two is right probably depends on a lot of factors, but knee-jerk partisanship shouldn’t be in the equation.

It’s worth noting that Obama’s position, as explained by Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell, is good for, oh ... the next 10 months or so. But after that, a new administration will have the freedom and responsibility for directing America’s energy policy.

With that in mind, it’s hard to get too upset by Obama’s decision – especially since gasoline prices have been below $2 per gallon for most of the past six months.

Who in their wildest dreams could have imagined such a price drop even two years ago?

The low price is symptomatic of a glut of oil, and suggests an oil boom along the Atlantic coastline might not be as likely as McCrory hopes. Keep in mind also the economies in many coastal towns in North and South Carolina depend heavily on tourism and fishing – two industries that have their own concerns about the safety of offshore drilling.

With those factors in mind, delaying offshore exploration and drilling in the mid-Atlantic a little while longer isn’t going to cause any long-term damage.