Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:
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Aug. 7
The Index-Journal on the aftermath of recent mass shootings across the country:
Social media, as expected, has been stoked since the latest round of mass shootings.
We love (insert sarcasm font, please) the finger-pointing between the left and right just as much as we love the song-and-dance among so many elected to the offices that govern our state and nation.
Perhaps running a close second to the topic of abortion when it comes to spirited discussion - translation: angry discourse - is the whole discussion about guns, gun violence, shootings, mass murders. You want to see polar opposites then take to social media and read commentary associated with any of these.
Those in the middle, those who are willing to truly have civil and reasonable discourse are few and far between.
One comment we saw on Facebook caught us off guard a little. If what happened in El Paso were not such a tragic situation, there could be reason to laugh. But it’s not a laughing matter because while it seems to be an attempt at humor, the brief commentary is really more of an astute observation.
It read: “So Walmart security didn’t see a (expletive) coming in with an AK-47, but they wanna see a receipt for some (expletive) water.”
Yes, there are quite a few questions worth asking as mass shootings continue to take place and as people continue to lose and bury loved ones.
But the one that keeps gnawing at us? When will the posturing, hand-wringing and “thoughts and prayers” platitudes give way to truly meaningful discussion and, most important, real action that changes the trajectory of our nation?
Online: http://www.indexjournal.com
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Aug. 1
The Post and Courier on South Carolina residents remaining vulnerable to costly and dubious energy projects:
Aug. 1 marks the second anniversary of the decision to abandon construction on two nuclear reactors in Fairfield County after wasting $9 billion of SCANA and Santee Cooper electric customers’ money on the project.
We’re still dealing with the fallout of that failure, including determining the fate of Santee Cooper, which could be sold to a private company if it makes economic sense for customers in the long-term.
But there are ways in which the state’s residents remain troublingly vulnerable to expensive and unnecessary energy projects. And the nuclear mess has made clear the consequences of waiting until it’s too late to address problematic regulatory policy.
The most obvious concern is Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which is working its way down the East Coast.
As of February, that project was behind schedule and at least $3 billion over budget, which will sound awfully familiar to those who followed South Carolina’s nuclear effort as it foundered and eventually failed.
Dominion says it doesn’t need to build the pipeline into South Carolina, at least for now. But its acquisition of SCANA - and all of its natural gas power plants - would give it the justification necessary to get federal go-ahead should it eventually rethink that decision.
And South Carolina wouldn’t have much of a say in that choice until the pipeline had already been built and Dominion went to the state Public Service Commission to ask customers to pay for it.
Although the laws are very different, the result could be painfully similar to what happened when SCANA customers ended up with the bill for a worthless pile of reactor parts. And the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s cost - at least $7 billion and climbing - isn’t far off from the nuclear debacle either.
The obvious solution would be to require regulatory approval from state officials before building a pipeline. There’s no demonstrable need for more natural gas in South Carolina at the moment, so such an expensive project would be a tough sell.
Without legislative action, however, the only thing the PSC would be able to do is try to hold back the inevitable rate increases to pay for a pipeline after it has already been built.
So far, lawmakers have rightly been focused on cleaning up the mess for former SCANA customers and figuring out what to do with Santee Cooper. But this anniversary ought to serve as a reminder to look ahead as well.
The state Legislature has worked hard to make it more difficult for another nuclear fiasco to happen in South Carolina. That’s commendable. It’s also almost certainly not the most imminent threat.
Given the perverse economics inherent in regulated utilities - profits are allowed as a set percentage of expenditures, meaning that utilities can earn more by spending more - there’s an obvious incentive to bring a big, expensive pipeline into South Carolina.
Lawmakers must make sure that electric customers don’t end up paying for another costly project they don’t need.
Online: https://www.postandcourier.com
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Aug. 1
The Times and Democrat on fewer reported shark attacks and conserving the shark population:
… Sharks made news this past weekend with two reported attacks on humans in the surf near Jacksonville. Neither resulted in severe injuries, thankfully.
Despite scary headlines, shark attacks are down.
In 2017, 66 unprovoked shark attacks were reported around the globe, a decrease from the annual average of 84 attacks and also below the 88 attacks in 2017. Sharks killed four people in 2018, which is below the average of six, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File as reported by USA Today.
Shark attacks in Florida - the state with the most attacks annually - get a lot of attention. But attacks occur in South Carolina waters as well.
The state is third among 23 coastal states over the past decade for the number of shark attacks, according to SafeWise, which looked at 20 years of data from the Global Shark Attack File.
Even with that rank, the number of attacks is few. South Carolina has had 38 shark attacks over the past 10 years. None was fatal.
The state has not had a fatal shark attack since 1883, according to statistics from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 91 million people swim in the ocean, lakes and rivers. Only about 44 people are attacked by sharks each year.
A Myrtle Beach tourism website says the odds of getting bitten are one in 4 million at their beach.
Many encounters with sharks are the result of mistaken identity. When the shark realizes it has bitten something other than a fish or other ocean prey, it most often lets go.
No matter, the fear of being bitten or killed by a shark is an irrationally terrible one for humans. And it is that fear that often prompts the wrong reaction.
Man is killing sharks at a rate millions of times greater than sharks are injuring man. Though sharks killed four people in 2018, people killed about 100 million sharks last year. Most sharks are killed by commercial fishermen for their fins and flesh.
So great is the danger to the shark population that regulations on shark fishing in South Carolina waters are more stringent than the average fisherman realizes.
In S.C. waters, fishermen can keep one Atlantic sharpnose and one bonnethead per day. Some other species are limited to one shark per boat per day. Many species - including tiger and white sharks - cannot be kept at all.
News about shark attacks is sure to yield surprise at catch limits on the creatures. But during this Shark Week, realize they are needed.
Repeating a quote from The Bellingham (Wash.) Herald: “Allowing man-made hysteria to overrule regulations set into place to conserve these valuable members of the ecosystem would be a horrible mistake. Too often, our first response is to eradicate anything that causes us fear or trouble. . Leave regulations in place and help conserve what is left of our wild world.”
Online: https://thetandd.com
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