The SC Senate will be debating a controversial energy bill, H.3309, starting Tuesday, April 1, that could be expensive for consumers.

The primary purpose of the bill is to encourage building more power plants and transmission lines. However, this bill does a lot more than that and can result in your paying unreasonably high electric rates. 

One part of the bill would allow utility companies to offer reduced electric rates, even up to 25% below the cost of producing and delivering their electricity, to big business and industrial prospects. However, someone has to pay these costs and utilities won’t absorb the loss.

These discounts will mean residential and small business customers will have to pay higher rates. This would apply even to super wealthy companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft that are building energy-hog data centers that provide very little public benefit while draining our resources.  

The bill would also weaken the regulatory process that was put into place after V.C. Summer. It limits oversight and accountability of monopoly utilities by limiting the power of the Public Service Commission. Both ratepayers and the environment will suffer. 

H.3309 also blocks clean energy solutions, keeping our state reliant on outdated fossil fuels.