The drilling rigs could be as close in as twelve miles from shore, and still below the line of sight for anybody in the top floor of a 10-story condominimum. So the objection that the drilling rigs would be “unsightly” fails quickly.
The proliferation of sports fishing, where the fish tend to congregate in the near area of the new “reef” formed by the drilling platforms, should more than offset any diminuation of the “recreational” aspects of South Carolina. In fact, the drilling platforms, in their approach to the undersea horizons, may have to go through a layer of Methane Hydrate, estimated in place to be several hundred feet in depth. This substance should be not considered an obstacle, but an additional resource to be developed. By simply scooping up the Methane Hydrate from its layer on the ocean floor, and transferring it to an expansion chamber, it may be possible to extract natural gas from the ocean floor without even the necessity to tap down into a reservoir of natural gas.
Under the conditions in the ocean depths greater than 1,500 feet, the water temperature is a steady 38º F. the ambient pressure is between six and ten times the stmospheric standard. Methane mixed with water forms a chalthrate, a physical state in which the methane molecule fits into the interstices in water, allowing something like 164 times the volume of the gaseous methane at normal atmospheric to fit into one volume of water. So long as the pressure is maintained, or the temperature remains below about 42º F at normal atmospheric pressure, the substance is stable, and may be handled just like normal ice formed by freezing water.
Once above that critical temperature, however, the substance goes through phase change, and the methane is released, leaving one volume of somewhat saline water, and methane gas under pressure.
There is GREAT potential for harvesting this Methane Hydrate from the ocean floor, along the Continental Shelf, and converting it into readily usable fuel to drive power generation stations, as a fuel for motor vehicles (as CNG, compressed natural gas), and as a way to heat homes and drive industry, cheaply, and with an inexhaustible supply, as the ocean continues to generate Methane Hydrate from decomposing organic material that drifts to the bottom of the sea, and is turned into methane as one of the decomposition products.
How do we harvest this?