Energy Bills: Why Does the Legislature Want to Relive the 2017 Disaster of V.C. Summer?
Instead of filing one bill, the latest trend among South Carolina legislators seems to be to file several bills along the same topic. Why have one really bad bill when you could have three? It makes it more difficult for the grassroots to put out a call to action, especially when the establishment decides to ramrod one of those bills in less than 24 hours (see the most recent rules package.) This game plan is becoming more apparent as there has been over 1,000 bills filed so far.
The SC General Assembly has taken this tactic with the Palmetto State’s energy policy through bills such as S.12 and H.3309. Special thanks to former Rep. Jonathon Hill’s bad bill sheet for providing detailed information that made this article possible.
H.3309 - The Addition to Biden’s “Clean Energy” Initiative
The SC House passed a gigantic energy bill (H.3309) on February 12th, that is on its way to the SC Senate. This bill is sponsored by House Speaker Murrell Smith and is entitled “South Carolina Energy Security Act”. This bill has been described as the “warmed-over version” of last year’s H.5118 that died after the House passed it and the Senate could not agree on its final wording. This bill was re-filed and fast-tracked in 2025. Let’s look at some of the major problems of this bill:
The Public Service Commission (PSC) is controlled by the legislature and is majorly impacted by H.3309. Not only does this bill contain language to force the PSC to act more as a judicial body, but it prohibits the PSC from using experts to present their own evidence. Instead, it limits the PSC’s decisions to rely on the evidence only submitted by utility companies on the record. If any information is left out of the submitted evidence, the PSC cannot consider it in any ruling. This rigs the system against ratepayers, favors the utility companies, and protect legislators from blame for the rate hikes. Furthermore, H.3309 redefines the mission of the Public Service Commission (PSC) to include actively planning for the state’s energy needs instead of just regulating public utilities, creating more economic development incentives, and build economic development further into the state’s regulatory fabric.
This bill authorizes another public/private partnership between Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy for power plant construction. The bill states that they may immediately begin charging ratepayers for nuclear construction costs event before construction has even been approved by the Public Service Commission and even if the projects are abandoned before completion. This has happened once before, which led to the failed V.C. Summer nuclear construction project between Santee Cooper and SCANA. SCANA went bankrupt because of this project and sold to Dominion. Lawmakers tied the hands of regulators and locked ratepayers into the deal regardless of whether or not the projects were ever completed. Several people went to jail and ratepayers are still paying off the billions of debt for this failed project.
Authorizes Santee Cooper (a state-owned utility) to incur massive amounts of debt as well as allowing all utilities to apply for available grants to fund nuclear site research.
Allows businesses that are large enough and are selected by the SC Department of Commerce to pick their own power company regardless of where they are located in South Carolina. For example, a foreign business could move in and choose where they get their energy from, but everyone else in South Carolina has to operate under whatever monopoly power district they are located in.
Creates a legislatively controlled “Energy Policy Research and Development Institute” within the University of South Carolina to do energy research for state lawmakers. This institute is being created to collaborate with SC Nexus, a “clean energy” initiative which began last session under the Biden administration and was passed by the South Carolina General Assembly (another bill that was sponsored by House Speaker Murrell Smith.)
Fiscal impact statement is listed as $23,494,000 which is a sharp increase from last year’s H.5118 of $2,587,418.
Contains several encouragements for privately owned utilities and creates a 10-year energy plan for the state, which stifles utilities driven by the market and increases the state-driven energy monopoly that has resulted in the highest electric utility rates in the southeast.
This bill was recently passed by the House and is waiting to be introduced in the Senate as of February 14th.
S.12 - Santee Cooper Joint Power Plant
This bill authorizes Santee Cooper to build another jointly owned power plant with a private company. S.12 is written similar to the failed VC Summer nuclear plant that ratepayers are still paying the price for. This bill is extremely vague and has no fiscal impact so there’s no way of knowing how much it will cost South Carolinians.
It is important to note that Santee Cooper was $7.4 billion in debt at the end of 2023 and their current economic outlook is “negative” overall.
This bill is currently sitting in the SC Senate Judiciary Committee and has not been assigned a hearing date as of February 14th.
Receives Uniparty Stamp of Approval
Republicans have used the passage of H.3309 as a bragging right as they parade this as a “win” for ending the “energy crisis” in the Palmetto State. I question this “energy crisis” since we have heard so much about it from our elected officials the past several YEARS, yet South Carolinians have yet to “face the consequences”. Is this “energy crisis” just a ploy to force South Carolinians into another fast-tracked dirty deal? Are we tired of the fear mongering yet?
H.3309 House Votes
Check out the final House vote for H.3309. Those in green voted in favor of the bill, red voted against, and white did not vote.
One Representative Speaks Out
Representative Rob Harris made a video explaining his “no” vote shortly after the House passed H.3309. I highly recommend listening to his reasoning:
Contact Your Senators
In order to avoid another 2017 V.C. Summer disaster, I highly encourage you to contact your Senator and ask him/her to kill both S.12 and H.3309. Find your Senator HERE.
H.3309 is currently scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, March 5th at 10AM in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in Room 105 of the Gressette Building. See the agenda HERE.
Contact the following subcommittee members and ask them to vote AGAINST H.3309: Senator Luke Rankin (Chair): Senator George “Chip” Campsen, Senator Shane Massey, Senator Brian Adams, Senator Tameika Devine, Senator Jason Elliott, and Senator Russell Ott.
You can send a message to the Senate Judiciary Committee here: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/email.php?T=C&C=S2000000800