League of Women Voters ^®
of South Carolina

The State

Despite his overall support for President Donald Trump, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has spent much of his tenure taking stances on the environment that are either at odds with the Republican president or not on Trump’s radar.

Lynn Teague, LWVS vice president for issues and action,, said the governor has done well on many issues, but he and other leaders need to take strong positions on controlling the growth of data centers. “We have seen now for several years attempts to get some meaningful regulation of these data centers, which plays into the utility issues, and it hasn’t happened,’’ she said. “We’d like to have seen more leadership from the governor and other leaders.’’

Charleston City Paper/The Statehouse Report

South Carolina’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has given itself six months to review the largest utility merger in U.S. history — the proposed $67-billion deal between Florida power behemoth NextEra and Virginia’s Dominion Energy, which operates in 20 states including S.C.

The company's plans to add 15 gigawatts of power generation to support data center growth caught the attention of S.C. ratepayer advocates. “It’s all about data centers,” S.C. League of Women Voters Vice President Lynn Teague said with a sigh. “That’s what’s making Dominion such an attractive target.”

Data centers — increasingly controversial in S.C. due to their high water and power usage — have emerged as a major issue in the merger,