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The democratic process isn’t perfect but sometimes it works just as it should to express the will of the people. Certainly that’s what occurred when the Obama administration decided to abandon plans to open the South Carolina coast to offshore drilling.

Over the past year, the people of coastal South Carolina have spoken nearly as one, through their elected town and county councils, against offshore drilling. Local jurisdictions from Hilton Head to North Myrtle Beach joined the campaign as they independently weighed the risks. Locally, the opposition ranged from Edisto Beach to McClellanville, with virtually every community, large and small, joining in.

And they were backed by all three coastal representatives in the U.S. House. Indeed, two congressmen — 1st District Rep. Mark Sanford and 7th District Rep. Tom Rice, both Republicans — took a stance after considering the local opposition to the plan. In doing so, they joined 6th District Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat.

Officials with the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also recognized the broad public opposition in South Carolina and other Atlantic coastal states as they cancelled a proposal to allow the exploration for oil and natural gas deposits, preparatory to their extraction.