South Carolina Senate turns wide-ranging energy bill into resolution supporting more power

A measure passed by the South Carolina House that powerfulness companies said is captious to support the lights connected successful the authorities has been turned into an look of enactment successful the Senate

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A measure that powerfulness companies telephone captious to keeping the lights connected successful South Carolina has been turned into a solution that lone expresses enactment for the thought by the Senate, which wasn't acceptable to springiness much latitude to utilities that outgo ratepayers billions.

The Senate agreed to gut the House’s 80-plus leafage vigor measure and regenerate it with a solution acknowledging the state’s powerfulness needs are growing. They besides promised to extensively sermon vigor matters this autumn and person their ain authorities acceptable astir the clip the General Assembly returns successful 2025.

Upset that the Senate wasn't taking up the proposal, the House started attaching it to wholly antithetic bills similar 1 requiring therapists to instrumentality termination prevention grooming and different to let firefighters who unrecorded extracurricular the authorities to get crab health care benefits if they enactment successful South Carolina.

Republican Sen. Tom Davis spent weeks trying to broker the impasse, but galore senators, including their leadership, did not privation to enactment rapidly to unbend rules and safeguards.

Those rules were enactment successful spot aft state-owned Santee Cooper and backstage South Carolina Electric & Gas outgo ratepayers and shareholders billions of dollars erstwhile they collected the wealth to physique a brace of atomic reactors that were abandoned earlier operation was finished.

In the end, the champion Davis said the Senate could bash was the resolution, which helium said should beryllium considered a motion to each the enactment the House did to grip what is an important issue.

“We each person the aforesaid objectives. We privation to summation capableness successful a liable way. I deliberation it was conscionable a frank acknowledgment the 2 chambers are astatine a antithetic points successful that process close now," Davis said.

The connection present heads backmost to the House, which has until the regular league ends Thursday to determine if it volition judge the Senate's version, importune connected its ain oregon conscionable fto the substance die.

All 170 members of the General Assembly are up for reelection successful November.

The measure was introduced successful February and passed the House successful astir a month. Power companies said they request to revamp South Carolina's rules connected utilities to marque it easier to physique caller plants and make much vigor aft rolling blackouts were astir needed connected Christmas Eve 2022.

The House bill's abbreviated word extremity is to marque definite backstage Dominion Energy, which bought South Carolina Electric & Gas aft the atomic debacle, and Santee Cooper tin physique a natural-gas fired powerfulness works successful the Lowcountry. It allowed faster support of state pipelines needed for the project.

The agelong word goals see items specified arsenic reducing the Public Service Commission which oversees utilities from 7 members, having watchdogs see the wellness of utilities arsenic good arsenic the needs for ratepayers arsenic they marque decisions and allowing utilities to merchandise little accusation astir immoderate projects publically earlier they are approved.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has said astir if not each of those goals are noble. But aft moving connected each kinds of authorities aft the operation was halted connected the atomic plants successful 2017 helium wants to instrumentality clip and fto the Senate clasp hearings and survey the issue. The House held its ain hearings earlier this year.

Massey is particularly annoyed Dominion ratepayers are already connected the hook to wage for the atomic plants that ne'er generated a watt of powerfulness and are being asked to wage for different powerfulness plant.

Nearly fractional the House was elected aft the atomic debacle successful which operation was halted connected 2 caller atomic reactors earlier they were finished. Three-quarters of the senators were serving erstwhile the reactors went bust.