Our Position:
Refer to the LWVSC Program & Action Agenda for our current position on this issue and background/action information, as applicable.
Current Issues:
Utility Regulation: South Carolina's Energy Future
The CEOs of Dominion, Santee Cooper, and Duke Energy want South Carolina to abandon very important elements of the system of utility regulation established after the V.C. Summer collapse. The League of Women Voters of South Carolina continues to advocate for fair evidence-based utility regulation to ensure our state's future.
Webinars: Combatting Climate Change: It's Now or Never
Presented by Ted Volskay, Co-Chair, LWVSC Environmental Policy Working Group, this webinar series helps us better understand climate change, explains the latest assessment of threats and South Carolina's initiatives, and suggests what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.
1/13/2022 Guest Essay: SC Plutonium Pit Plan Distracts from Our Most Pressing Threat
The federal government has unveiled plans to construct a plutonium pit manufacturing plant at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, a decision the League of Women Voters of South Carolina opposes.
Energy Department resources committed to the construction of the processing facility would be better spent on research and investment into renewable energy, sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions, and other efforts to reduce human greenhouse gas emissions. Ultimately, combating climate change with haste should be our highest national security priority. Read the article.
2021 Savannah River Site Waste
Neither South Carolina’s environment, the U.S., its economy, nor our world, needs these pits, nor the new deployment devices to deliver pits. What we all need are solid international non-proliferation policies and treaties, in line with existing LWVUS policies. We now have a plan to clean up the Savannah River Site in the next 20 years. Read the article.
2021 Plastics
Do you feel “green” when you recycle plastic waste with the following symbol? Not so fast. The petrochemical plastics industry hopes that you do. They hope that environmentally conscious consumers will feel “green” so that they will continue to buy plastic products because it has the 100% RECYCLABLE label. Although plastic products with the 100% RECYCLABLE label may “technically” be recyclable, they will not be recycled if recycling is not economically feasible. An internal 1973 plastics manufacturing report cited in the PBS Frontline Plastic Wars concludes that “the cost of new plastic is so low that sorting and reprocessing used plastic cannot be justified economically”.
This conclusion appears as valid 47 years later. According to Plastic Wars, it is estimated that 90% of plastic wastes will never be recycled, including plastics embossed with the 100% RECYCLABLE symbol.
