2025-26 Environmental Policy Advocacy

2025-26 Environmental Policy Advocacy

2025-26 Legislative Advocacy

The LWVSC Board of Directors determines statewide legislative priorities grounded in the good governance issues that are at the heart of the League of Women Voters. 

The League remains focused intensively on its Making Democracy Work (MDW) campaign: voting and elections, redistricting, and opposition to constitutional convention resolutions. The League, as always, will attempt to advocate on all bills falling within our areas of interest as defined in state and national policies. Follow our latest Making Democracy Work (MDW) Network Updates to organizations that share our interests. 

Reference: LWVSC Environmental Policy Positions/Issues

LWVSC Bills of Interest

2025-26 LWVSC Bills of Interest

Data Centers

 
S.902 Data Center Siting Act, S.724 Commercial Data Center Water Usage Report
We strongly support the requirement in S.902 that data center operators, not non-participating customers, bear the cost of providing electrical service to data centers. "Self-generation" should not depend on grid support that would require public utilities to maintain capacity to serve them if their own power sources falter. Our greatest disagreement with the terms of S.902 relates to regulatory authority as it applies to siting and environmental evaluations.
 
S.867 Data Center Development Act
The League strongly supports the requirement in this bill that data centers pay all costs associated with generating and distributing the electricity that they use in vast quantities. We believe that the bill can be improved through amendments as it moves through the legislative process. Robust opportunities for both expert and public input, are currently absent in the bill, and exemptions provided in this bill appear to be excessive. Data centers generating their own power must be held to strong environmental standards. 
More information on data centers
 

Water Management

 
2025 South Carolina State Water Plan, Third Edition
Addressing responsible water management is essential for the future of our state. The League of Women Voters is concerned about the possibility that the potential for water demand growth in the coming years has been underestimated. We recommend intensive monitoring of the quantity and quality of on-going water use, including both surface and ground water, and legislation to establish effective regulation of water use informed by the varying conditions in the watersheds in our state.
 

Utility Regulation

 
S.446 Electric Rate Stabilization Act - Suggested Language Changes
 
S. 12 Santee Cooper Joint Project Authorization
The League of Women Voters supports this bill that would allow permit Santee Cooper to enter into joint projects with investor-owned utilities. This  bill does not intrude on the authority and responsibilities of the Public Service Commission (PSC) to evaluate and permit individual projects through their well-defined quasi-judicial regulatory processes. 
 
H.3309 Energy Regulation 
We ask that you preserve the ability of the State to protect us from the power of monopolies, do not establish preferential treatment of utilities over citizens and citizen groups during regulatory processes, protect residential ratepayers; allow agencies to do their jobs in assessing individual projects, don’t reach their conclusions regarding individual projects for them, and require data centers to fully pay their own way.
 
Senate Special Committee on South Carolina's Energy Future

CEOs of Dominion, Santee Cooper, and Duke Energy made it clear that they want South Carolina to abandon important elements of the system of utility regulation established after the V.C. Summer collapse. The utilities are now seeking to replace effective protections enacted then with a very weak regulatory regime, a new version of the Base Load Review Act (BLRA), an increased ROI, and a lot of personal trust.

We ask that the committee develop a bill that will continue our current evidence-based regulatory system that so wisely fosters development of a sound energy industry in South Carolina while protecting users from the potential abuses of a monopoly system.

We also ask that the committee take up the issue of data centers and crypto currency. We are not asking that they be prohibited in South Carolina, but that legislation ensure that they pay the full cost of generating and delivering their energy, as well as standard tax rates without special waivers.
 
H.5118 and S.909 Rollback of public protections in utility regulation
H.5118 follows in that tradition of regulatory capture, depending on utilities to voluntarily give adequate attention to the interests of the public instead of focusing on their shareholders and their own interests. We are deeply concerned about the rollback of consumer protections of rate payers and urge this committee to reject this bill.
 
3/3/2026 Testimony: S.902 Data Center Siting Act, S.724 Commercial Data Center Water Usage Report
We strongly support the requirement in S.902 that data center operators, not non-participating customers, bear the cost of providing electrical service to data centers.”Self-generation" should not depend on grid support that would require public utilities to maintain capacity to serve them if their own power sources falter. Our greatest disagreement with the terms of S.902 relates to regulatory authority as it applies to siting and environmental evaluations.