Senator Ernest F. (Fritz) Hollings

Senator Hollings has long been a champion for Ocean Policy and Conservation. While serving in the US Senate he authored an extraordinary range of laws to safeguard America's coasts and oceans, including the Coastal Zone Management Act (1972), the Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972), the Oceans Dumping Act (1976), and the Sustainable Fisheries Act (1996). He is recognized as the legislative "father" of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2000, President Clinton signed into law Senator Hollings' Ocean Act, which created the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and set in motion a comprehensive review of the nation's ocean and coastal policies. Before leaving the Senate he authored the Coastal and Estuarine Land Protection Act (legislation to expand national efforts to conserve pristine coastal lands) and the Oceans and Human Health Act, and also increased the national focus and priority of ocean and coastal conservation and research, and was instrumental in bringing NOAA marine labs to South Carolina.

Emphasizing "practical conservationism," Senator Hollings co-authored legislation to create the Congaree Swamp National Monument; secured funding necessary to purchase land for the Monument; and is currently spearheading the Monument's designation as South Carolina's sole National Park. He also co-authored the legislation and secured all of the funding for the South Carolina Heritage Corridor.  He helped to broker cooperative efforts to preserve the ACE Basin by securing the Federal designation as well as funding for every acre contained in both the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge and the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve. He secured federal funding to expand the Sumter National Forest around Lake Jocassee, the Francis Marion National Forest near McClellanville, and Wildlife Refuges at Waccamaw and Cape Romain. Currently, he is leading efforts to conserve the portions of the Cooper River known as Bonneau Ferry.  In 1975, he authored the Automobile Fuel Economy Act, the nation’s first standards to improve fuel efficiency and decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil; leading the fight to repeal the oil depletion allowance that year (a $2.4 billion tax break for oil companies).

Senator Hollings was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966, and previously served in the South Carolina general assembly, as lieutenant governor and then Governor, of South Carolina.  He is a native of Charleston, South Carolina and a graduate of the Citadel and University of South Carolina Law School.