Current:Home > reviewsSenate opposition leaves South Carolina energy bill with listless future -Wealth Legacy Solutions
Senate opposition leaves South Carolina energy bill with listless future
View
Date:2025-04-12 18:07:10
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Before a bill that supporters said will help South Carolina keep the lights on as the state rapidly grows could get debated on the Senate floor, several senators spoke out against the proposal.
The lawmakers, including Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said it’s being rushed and could roll back expensive lessons learned by a failed nuclear reactors.
Massey said the 80-plus page bill introduced on Feb. 15 has too many changes to regulations. In remarks before the bill is even considered, he suggested punting it to next year and spending the rest of 2024 with comprehensive hearings to determine the scope the state’s power needs and exactly how the regulatory system is preventing utilities from getting the help they need to produce more electricity.
“I’m not going to be held hostage by people saying if you don’t give us exactly what we want when we want it we’re going to turn the lights out on you,” Massey said.
Supporters of the bill point to Christmas Eve 2022 when cold weather combined with some problems at generating stations led to demand that nearly topped the ability to generate electricity in South Carolina.
Utility officials said rolling blackouts were only minutes away in some places in the state before more generation capacity came online
The short term goal for supporters of the bill is to make sure private Dominion Energy and state-owned utility Santee Cooper can build a natural-gas fired power plant in the Lowcountry. It allows faster approval of gas pipelines needed for the project.
The long term goals include items like reducing the Public Service Commission which oversees utilities from seven members, having watchdogs consider the health of utilities as well as the needs for ratepayers as they make decisions and allowing utilities to release less information about some projects from the public before they are approved.
Republican Sen. Luke Rankin said while the bill is barely two months old, the ideas have been debated for much longer, both in the House and generally.
“The sense of this being jammed down, fast tracked, hurried through, scuttled by everyone — I don’t’ take offense to that,” Rankin said. “The process is the process.”
The clock is ticking on the bill for 2024 though. The bill will die if not approved by the end of the session on May 9. The Senate will spend a week on the budget, leaving the body with about eight legislative days to come up with something.
Republican Sen. Sandy Senn said she was told by Dominion Energy it would take eight years to get the new gas plant online and that’s why the bill was needed in 2024.
“If it will be a good bill today it will be a good bill tomorrow,” Senn said.
Tuesday’s opponents to the bill said they aren’t against extra power. A state whose population has grown by more than 30% in the past two decades — adding more than 1.4 million people — needs it to keep the lights on in houses and big manufacturers and data farms humming without having to buy power from out of state.
But the state should pause and look at ideas like limiting data farms that use more power in a week than entire communities in a year or give more credence to solar or other greener energy solutions that backers of the bill said are currently unreliable.
Hovering over the entire debate are decisions lawmakers made nearly 20 years ago overhauling the way regulators look at utilities, allowing them recover costs of building two nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer plant near Columbia before the work was done.
When construction fell behind, executives of South Carolina Electric & Gas — later bought by Dominion as it faced possible bankruptcy — lied about the progress to keep the money coming. Several were convicted of crimes after the project failed in 2017.
Nearly half the House was elected after the nuclear debacle, while three-quarters of senators were serving when the reactors went bust.
One of those was Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, settling into her second year with the body. She said utilities still haven’t finished the cleanup of the mess burning coal left behind in her Colleton County district and she sure doesn’t trust their word on this bill without a lot of scrutiny.
“There is no lesson to be learned from the second kick of a mule,” she said. “Perhaps we need to take a minute and see what’s happening.”
veryGood! (93867)
Related
- Organizers cancel Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna over fears of an attack
- Flaming Lips member Steven Drozd's teen daughter goes missing: 'Please help if you can'
- Cissy Houston, Mom of Whitney Houston, Dead at 91
- Will Taylor Swift be at the Kansas City game against the New Orleans Saints?
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Case Claiming Environmental Racism in Cancer Alley Zoning
- Small business disaster loan program said to be in danger of running out of funds by end of month
- The Latest: Harris continues media blitz with 3 more national interviews
- Paige Bueckers vs. Hannah Hidalgo highlights women's basketball games to watch
- A$AP Rocky Reveals When He Knew Rihanna Fell in Love With Him
Ranking
- Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
- Angel Dreamer Wealth Society: Your Pathway to Financial Freedom through Expert Investment Education and AI Technology
- Are colon cleanses necessary? Experts weigh in on potential risks.
- What polling shows about Black voters’ views of Harris and Trump
- The seven biggest college football quarterback competitions include Michigan, Ohio State
- Powerball winning numbers for October 7: Jackpot rises to $315 million
- Kathy Bates chokes up discovering she didn't leave mom out of Oscar speech: 'What a relief'
- As Milton takes aim at Florida, why is Tampa Bay so vulnerable to hurricanes?
Recommendation
Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
While Alabama fans grieve on Paul Finebaum Show, Kalen DeBoer enjoys path to recovery
Illegal migration at the US border drops to lowest level since 2020.
Biden sets a 10-year deadline for US cities to replace lead pipes and make drinking water safer
Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
When and where to watch the peak of the Draconid meteor shower
Prosecutor says Omaha officer was justified in fatally shooting fleeing man
Sean 'Diddy' Combs' mother defends him amid legal troubles: 'A public lynching of my son'