“And Yet It Makes Environmental Sense”: Beachfront Management and Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina

In the late 1980s, South Carolina tried to curb its accelerating erosion problems with the Beachfront Management Act (BMA), but economic interests ultimately overrode environmentalist concerns. The BMA was designed to ensure the environmental well-being of the beach without undermining the economic vitality of the tourism industry, but after its implementation, property owners and the tourism industry undermined the act by stressing the pain of short-term economic losses. It became clear that the state had served as a major actor in setting up the extractive coastal economies and had lacked the motivation to seek meaningful alternatives.