Thursday’s second editorial takes on
a more obscure topic: Fighting invasive species in South Carolina:
Students of S.C. agriculture know all
too well the frustrations and problems brought to the South by the invasive
kudzu bug. The Asian insects, which were first discovered in the U.S. in 2009,
emit a foul odor and a stinging chemical. In colder months they can invade
homes and vehicles. They feast on legumes such as soybeans and can reduce a
farmer’s soybean yields by as much as 60 percent.
Wednesday’s editorial reminds readers
of the good work that turtle watchers do each season along our coast. They’re
expecting the flippered gals to start showing up late in May this year:
Sea Turtle patrols in Georgetown and Horry counties and along the Carolinas are making ready for another sea turtle nesting
season, beginning in May with the first nests and continuing into October with
the last of the hatchlings.
Jeff McClary of Pawleys Island
is in his 30th year of helping protect loggerheads and other sea turtles. He is
a founder of S.C. United Turtle Enthusiasts or SCUTE, the umbrella organization
for the area turtle patrols. McClary says the cool spring suggests nesting
later in May, after several days of higher temperatures that warm the ocean
water. The patrols will begin in May and continue into October. From May into
August, female loggerheads will crawl ashore and make nests in the sand, laying
100 or more eggs in the cavity. The adults return to the ocean. Eggs hatch in
six to eight weeks, starting in mid-July and continuing into October.
Friday’s editorial takes a look at
proposals to allow third-party businesses to lease solar panels to S.C.
consumers:
Solar power certainly isn’t perfect.
Those pesky clouds, for instance, can be a major problem. But it is one more
bullet in the renewable energy gun and one more way to take advantage of a
constantly replenished source of energy that will move us closer to the goal of
energy independence.
The problem in South Carolina? Solar power has largely
remained the province of utilities, large businesses and a few wealthy
homeowners. The biggest solar project in the state, at Boeing’s plant in North Charleston, for
instance, makes up about 65 percent of the entire state’s solar capacity, which
tops out around 4 megawatts. Santee Cooper’s largest solar project, located in Myrtle Beach just south
of The Sun News, can generate about a third of a megawatt. Compare that to the
26,000 megawatts produced in the state from all energy sources and it becomes
clear that the sun isn’t exactly a major part of South Carolina’s energy solution.
Sunday’s editorial weighs in on the
proposal to allow local municipalities to raise the accommodations tax to pay
for beach renourishment projects:
Beach renourishment will always be a
concern for our area, as it will for every developed coastal community.
Especially if the recommendations of the recently completed report of the
state’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Shoreline Management are adopted,
abandoning the state’s 20-year policy of beach retreat, continued renourishment
will be a given.
But do we need a higher tax to pay
for it? No. Not now. Hopefully not later.
Tuesday’s second editorial highlights
the good work of one of the lesser known nonprofits in the area:
Kristi Falk is on a mission: “to get
people in the area healthier.”
The former owner of a health food
store in Conway, Falk parlayed that experience first into five years of putting
on the Wellness Expo of Myrtle Beach at the city’s convention center. From
there, she founded the Wellness
Council for South Carolina in 2006. The nonprofit council seeks to teach
local residents how to be healthy people in all aspects of their lives, whether
nutrition or recycling, exercise or emotions.
Sunday’s editorial takes a look at
the shoreline management report that came out on Monday and what it might mean
for us around here:
The report on
managing our state’s beaches released this week after two years of study by
S.C. leaders is a mixed bag for beach lovers. As you might expect after
prolonged negotiations between competing conservation and development
interests, it ended up a fairly flaccid, middle of the road report, with no
radical recommendations for state lawmakers. As state Rep. Tracy Edge, a member
of the committee that put together the document, told us recently, “the report
is kind of milquetoast.”
Thursday’s first editorial praises the recent vote for
Hurricane Sandy relief and urges our delegation to support next week’s recovery
funds as well:
Kudos to Rep. Tom Rice for breaking with the rest of the
state’s GOP delegation last week and supporting federal funds for Superstorm
Sandy relief.
The
nearly $10 billion bill approved Friday goes to the national flood insurance
program to help pay claims associated with the massive storm that devastated New York, New
Jersey and other parts of the Northeast. It’s a good
start.
If you're not an avid reader of the Federal Register, you may have missed the announcement yesterday that the Interior Department is opening up about 1,900 square miles of ocean off the Carolinas' coast to the possibility of wind turbines, with a lease auction to take place perhaps as early as next year.
It's good news for North Carolina, which was the focus of the announcement, but it could also be good news for South Carolina, particularly the Grand Strand. Two of the areas lie due east of the Myrtle Beach area. (Partial map below, full map here.) North Myrtle Beach and its North Strand Coastal Wind Team have long been trying to position itself to take advantage of any wind industry, and this could be the city's chance to get in on the ground floor. Depending on how serious things get and how realistic this becomes, it could also be a good opportunity for the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. (they really need to get a shorter name) to step in and flex their muscle.
Sunday’s editorial describes how a state
law that only got half finished is costing local governments hundreds of
thousands of dollars and could lead to an unnecessary tax increase in Horry County:
How does Horry County’s bill for
disposing of old TVs and computers unexpectedly spike from $30,000 a year to
around $300,000 a year, raising with it the possibility of a tax increase for
county residents? It wasn’t a giant increase in TV purchases. No, blame a
hurry-up-and-stop legislative process.
We’re getting tired of waiting for
updated coastal policies. Especially as development picks up again after the
recession, it’s time to get moving, as Thursday’s editorial explains:
Few things in government move
particularly quickly. We’ve accepted the reailty that delays in public
initiatives are inevitable and progress is painfully slow. But South Carolina’s
plodding efforts to prepare new guidelines for managing the state’s shoreline
are trying our patience.
Five years after the state’s
Department of Health and Environmental Control began its Shoreline Change
Initiative to update coastal policy, the policies are still being developed,
discussed and haggled over. Meanwhile, the coast continues to require
expensive, regular renourishment, development rules are still fairly lax and
misunderstood, and instead of the state’s hoped for retreat from the coast, builders
have continued to erect or redevelop property seaward of the line drawn in the
sand 25 years ago.
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