by Jack O'Toole

A controversial bill that promises to meet South Carolina’s growing energy needs by ramping up in-state power production is headed to the S.C. House floor next week with bipartisan support, despite fierce opposition from many of the state’s leading consumer and environmental groups.

The legislation, which is sponsored by GOP House Speaker Murrell Smith of Sumter, calls for the overhaul of the state’s regulatory system by reorganizing its structure and providing new legislative direction to commissioners, board members and staff. Moreover, it specifically directs the industry’s chief oversight body, the Public Service Commission (PSC), to expedite consideration of  large-scale energy projects, including a 2,000 megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant at Canadys in rural Colleton County that Dominion Energy and state-owned Santee Cooper hope to have open by 2031. 

Supporters say the bill will ensure that South Carolina – America’s fastest-growing state in 2023 and one of its largest per-capita energy users – has a secure, reliable energy supply for decades to come. 

But opponents warn that it weakens consumer protections and could lead to higher utility rates.

“We absolutely understand there’s a need for more energy generation,” S.C. League of Women Voters President Lynn Teague told Statehouse Report. “But the General Assembly should not be intruding on the decisions that are supposed to be made by state regulatory agencies.”

Of particular concern, she said, were a provision allowing utilities to meet with regulators behind closed doors, and the decision to put economic interests, rather than the  concerns of ratepayers, at the heart of the regulatory process.

“When government grants a monopoly to utilities, it’s giving them a very big asset,” Teague said. “And it’s the state’s absolute responsibility to protect the public from abuse of that asset.”

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