A sweeping energy bill is headed to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk for signature, but only after lawmakers stripped out consumer protection provisions designed to shield residential customers from higher power bills.

Credit: Photo by Fre Sonneveld on Unsplash

Advocates say the legislation, which will make it easier for utilities to build new power stations such as a controversial natural gas plant in rural Colleton County, is necessary to boost energy production in the nation’s fastest growing state.

But S.C. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield,  warned his colleagues against passing the bill, which supporters pushed through this week in the closing days of the legislative session.

“Your constituents are going to be paying more for energy,” Massey said. “You’re going to regret this.”

The new legislation comes less than a decade after the V.C. Summer nuclear fiasco, which bankrupted South Carolina’s largest private utility and saddled ratepayers with $9 billion in fees for power that was never produced.

Consumer and environmental advocates were quick to denounce the move.

“It is deeply disappointing that H. 3309 passed without much-needed protections against monopoly utilities taking advantage of everyday people,” Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Kate Mixon said in a statement.

Among the consumer protections that disappeared from the final bill were provisions requiring utilities to invest in energy efficiency to lower power bills, and to give notice to landowners before eminent domain is used to take their property for new power projects.

But particularly galling, consumer advocates say, was the removal of language that would have forced computer data centers, which are responsible for about 70% of new power needs in the state, to pay full price for the energy they use.

Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton, who supported the bill last month with consumer protections in place, said he voted no on final passage largely due to the data center issue. 

“South Carolina ratepayers should not be forced to subsidize massive data centers,” Sutton said in a social media post after the vote. “If data centers need new power lines, new generating stations, and special infrastructure, they should pay their fair share—not your family or your business.”

McMaster, who’s repeatedly called for energy legislation this session, is expected to sign the bill after it reaches his desk.

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