STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 23.26 | June 28, 2024
BIG STORY: Critical energy reforms needed soon, experts say
MORE NEWS: S.C. book ban denounced by free speech advocates
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Oh, the stupidity
COMMENTARY, Brack: New book dives into S.C.’s role in Revolutionary War
SPOTLIGHT: The S.C. Education Association
MY TURN, McCorkle: Biden’s new immigration policy keeps families together
MYSTERY PHOTO: More than an old field?
FEEDBACK: Enjoyed article; Spot-on cartoon
Critical energy reforms needed soon, experts say
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol Bureau | South Carolinians could face rolling blackouts and severe economic disruptions within the next decade unless state lawmakers pass critical energy reforms during the 2025-26 legislative session, according to experts and policymakers across the political spectrum.
But that won’t be easy, they warn, due to the lightning pace of technical and regulatory change in today’s energy industry. For instance, large-scale solar energy has grown by more than 400% in S.C. since just 2018.
“We don’t know what the world is going to look like in five years, 10 years,” said Hamilton Davis, the vice president of regulatory affairs for energyRE, a national developer of clean energy projects with offices in Charleston. “So we need to be robust in our planning approach to make sure we don’t wind up having major regrets about investing in something with long-term risk because it sounded good at the time.”
It was precisely that concern about risky investments in specific energy sources that doomed this year’s attempt at a sweeping energy bill that flew through the House but ultimately died in the Senate near the close of the session in May.
“I want to commend House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) and the House for pushing this debate forward,” said Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis. “Having said that, the House bill was a little bit too prescriptive in that it was making specific findings about what we want and where.”
Instead of that kind of specificity, Sen. Davis and others say, the legislature needs to embrace reforms that expedite the emergence of new energy sources in a better functioning market, while protecting the oversight role of the state’s primary energy regulator, the Public Service Commission (PSC).
A regulatory framework from the horse-and-buggy era
To understand where we are on energy in South Carolina, policymakers say, it helps to know where we started.
When electricity first came to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, South Carolina, like most states, was too poor to finance the buildout of a new energy generation and transmission infrastructure on its own.
As a result, state leaders took two steps to attract major out-of-state energy investments. First, they granted monopoly status to power companies in specific geographic regions. And second, they guaranteed those new monopolies a reasonable rate of return on every dollar they invested in generation, transmission and equipment.
The core of that regulatory framework remains largely in place today. And while few are recommending radical change, most experts agree the state won’t be able to meet its rapidly growing energy needs without major near-term reforms to start bringing the system into the 21st century.
Step 1: Competitive procurement
Under the current system, new energy is typically brought online by the monopoly utilities, which build new plants after getting approval from the PSC.
But according to analysts like Eddy Moore with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a market-based approach may be better. For example, procurement through competitive bidding allows bidders to compete for energy generation contracts and can deliver more abundant and reliable energy at lower costs for ratepayers, he said.
“We have a situation now where, once the utility company builds an approved power plant, they get paid whether or not it even operates,” Moore said. “But with a market-based procurement situation, you define what you need –we need this much more energy capacity – and you set up a competitive bidding process so the best available technology wins.”
Step 2: Creation of a Regional Transmission Organization
Today, the vast majority of Americans live in an area served by a regional transmission authority (RTO). These are independent organizations that connect all energy providers in a multistate region together, creating a real-time spot market for power. RTOs have been shown to reduce costs, increase reliability and facilitate better resource planning.
The Southeast is the only major region of the country without an RTO.
Reformers agree that the creation of a Southeastern RTO is necessary and, eventually, inevitable. But in the meantime, some suggest, a similar but more limited option is an energy imbalance market (EIM), which allows energy companies to engage in real time regional trading on a purely voluntary basis. It would serve to get the process started.
“I wouldn’t expect RTOs to be in a 2025 energy bill, but interim steps like EIMs have worked well across the country,” energyRE’s Davis said. “That’s a market structure where you’re really increasing flexibility across utility footprints and reducing costs for customers.”
Step 3: Improvements in energy efficiency
According to Moore, reducing the amount of wasted energy must be a major component and priority of any new energy legislation.
“We’re in the bucket of last-place states in the country on energy efficiency,” Moore said. “We need a concerted, organized effort to improve energy efficiency.”
And now, he stresses, would be an ideal time to move forward, given the large energy efficiency grants the Biden administration has made available to states and municipalities.
“The core of the program should be making sure houses are tight and insulated,” he said. “And then follow up with efficient HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems) and water heaters. Those are really the two big energy-saving opportunities in front of us.”
Step 4: Nuclear, and natural gas as a bridge
Though controversial in some quarters, Sen. Davis said he believes nuclear power will likely have a significant role to play in the diversified energy market that he and other reformers are working toward. He also thinks boosting power generation with natural gas will probably be necessary as a bridge to greener technologies in the future.
But he adds that decisions about when, where or whether to build new power plants of any kind should be left in the hands of the PSC.
“I just don’t think 170 members of the General Assembly are positioned to make those sorts of specific utility decisions,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said, “we need to be pragmatic” about ensuring adequate supply in the short and medium term, particularly with so many coal plants set to be retired in the near future – yet another reason for urgency in passing an energy bill as quickly as possible next year.
“We senators intend to work on this during the summer and fall, and have something we can hit the ground r
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. book ban denounced by free speech advocates
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | Free speech groups on both sides of the political aisle are blasting a new South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) regulation that empowers state officials to remove books containing “sexual content” from local school classrooms and libraries.
The rule, which opponents call a book ban, went into effect on June 25 without legislative review. Typically, the S.C. General Assembly scrutinizes and votes on new regulations within 120 days of the time they’re formally proposed. But when legislators don’t act, the rule becomes law automatically. This time, in what some lawmakers have called an oversight, they missed the deadline.
Calling it “part of a troubling nationwide book ban trend,” the ACLU of South Carolina denounced the rule as a threat to parents, students and teachers.
“Superintendent Weaver is seeking to hand unprecedented power to pro-censorship groups, overriding students’ freedom to read as well as parents’ right to direct their own children’s education,” said Josh Malkin, the organization’s advocacy director. “At a time when we can’t afford to lose more educators, the superintendent’s book banning policy would place mountains of paperwork and a threat of punishment on the backs of public school teachers and librarians.”
On the other side of the political spectrum, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is known for opposing what it calls “cancel culture” on college campuses, was equally concerned about the regulation’s impact.
“Blanket bans like this one in South Carolina impose one-size-fits-all, top-down mandates that require school district administrators to review library books without analyzing whether the specific content is suitable for specific age groups and grade levels.” said FIRE legislative counsel John Coleman. “That means schools have to ban 18-year-old high school seniors from encountering any library books that describe sex, which could include staples of high school reading lists like Brave New World, The Color Purple, and 1984.”
For its part, SCDE says the new rule is not a book ban because it doesn’t outlaw the sale of books in bookstores.
“This regulation deals with government employees acting in their government roles to select and buy materials using government funds that will be owned by the government, kept in government buildings, and used by government officials to administer a government program,” the department said in a statement. “This regulation says nothing about what children or parents can buy and read on their own time and dime.”
In other recent news:
Bills protecting sex trafficking victims, expanding daycare workforce could soon be law. The House and Senate returned to the Statehouse this week to pass a $14.5 billion budget funding state government through July 1, 2025. Lawmakers also reached several compromises in bills regarding sex trafficking victims and childcare workers.
Legislative session ends with goodbyes, flurry of bills. The South Carolina General Assembly met for what is expected to be the final day of the 2024 session Wednesday, taking up a flurry of bills and giving several lawmakers a chance to say goodbye.
S.C. lawmakers pass $14 billion budget. Pay raises for teachers and state employees, a permanent income tax cut, money to fix roads and bridges are just a few items in South Carolina’s final budget for the next fiscal year.
Gender gap to widen in S.C. Senate. After Tuesday’s primary runoff elections, only one of the five ‘sister senators’ who stood together to vote against the six-week abortion ban will remain in the Senate. “Which one of you will step up to the plate and take over what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years?” Lexington County GOP Sen. Katrina Shealy, a leader on children’s and elderly issues, asks colleagues in her farewell speech.
S.C. legislators approve changes to judicial selection process. In the final minutes of the S.C. General Assembly’s last day, lawmakers approved a bill to change the way the legislature selects judges. The bill now heads to Gov. McMaster to be signed into law.
S.C. General Assembly may consider expanding Medicaid. South Carolina remains one of only 10 states in the nation that still refuses to expand Medicaid eligibility, but some state lawmakers want a committee studying health care in South Carolina to at least consider the advantages of expanding Medicaid.
S.C.’s new public health agency ready to launch. The 50-year-old Department of Health and Environmental Control will split into two — the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services — starting July 1.
Oh, the stupidity
Nationally award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail always has an interesting take. This week, he takes on the so-called “hoax” of global warming by climate change deniers. What do you think – love the cartoon? Hate it? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
New book dives into S.C.’s role in Revolutionary War
By Andy Brack | It’s not uncommon for visitors to Charleston to revel in one history when it really might be richer to absorb another.
Too many forget the critical national importance of Charleston and the Carolinas in the colonial effort to become free from Great Britain.
Instead, they want to tour Fort Sumter and see the cannons in White Point Garden that they think bombarded the fort (nope; those cannons didn’t have the range at the time.)
With this week being full of Revolutionary War history – South Carolina celebrated the war’s first patriot naval victory over the British on June 28’s Carolina Day and the Declaration of Independence on July 4 – it’s the perfect time for a new look at what happened here from 1776 to 1783.
And so enters Virginia historian Alan Pell Crawford whose new book, “This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South,” comes out July 2.
In the 382-page work, he elegantly reminds us of one big thing: Had patriots in the Carolinas not fought in as many battles and pesky skirmishes during that war for independence, the colonists might not have won. In turn that means one thing to all of those tourists who flock in because of the Civil War – it wouldn’t have happened if not for the zeal for liberty by South Carolinians like Christopher Gadsden, Henry Laurens and his son John, Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter and William Moultrie.
Most people, Crawford incisively writes, think of the War for Independence as something that Virginian George Washington waged and won in the Northeast.
“The problem is that much of the war took place not in the North but in the South, and that is where the most decisive battles – those that forced the British surrender at Yorktown – were fought,” Crawford writes.
Key battles were here at Camden, Kings Mountain, Cowpens and Eutaw Springs, just an hour away from Charleston. The British also spent precious time and resources fighting to seize Charleston, the second richest colonial city during the time of the war. All of this stretched supply lines and diverted British attention, often giving Washington’s northern troops time to rest, recover and resupply.
Part of the reason the South’s crucial role in the Revolutionary War has been glossed over may be because of the Civil War and slavery.
“Even in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, historians were understandably reluctant to honor southerners who contributed so much to the War of Independence, knowing as they did the direct line from [Revolutionary War General] Henry Lee III, for example, to [Civil War General] Robert E. Lee.”
Nevertheless, Crawford’s objective discussion of the South’s role in the Revolutionary War makes for compelling reading. He tells the stories of events through captivating profiles of people like Marion, the hawk-nosed leader who essentially invented guerilla warfare in South Carolina’s swamps. Or the moving and ultimately sad tale of John Laurens, the energetic leader, aide to Washington, buddy of Alexander Hamilton and son of the only man long held during the war in the Tower of London. John Laurens died late in the war – in August 1782 – after an impetuous skirmish with a large British foraging party along the Combahee River about an hour south of Charleston today.
Crawford’s book gets its title from a speech made in 1775 by British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, who said of the colonists: “We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood of freedom circulates.”
So this year as you celebrate freedom, watch fireworks and think about what’s happening to this country 248 years later, recall the passion of colonists who risked their lives for an ideal – independence from a king – so they could become a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Crawford’s book is available for pre-order online until July 2, when it will be in bookstores. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
The S.C. Education Association
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week’s spotlighted underwriter is The South Carolina Education Association(The SCEA), the professional association for educators in South Carolina. Educators from pre-K to 12th grade comprise The SCEA. The SCEA is the leading advocate for educational change in South Carolina. Educators in South Carolina look to The SCEA for assistance in every aspect of their professional life. From career planning as a student to retirement assessment as a career teacher, The SCEA offers assistance, guidance, and inspiration for educators.
- Learn more: TheSCEA.org
Biden’s immigration policy keeps families together
By Will McCorkle | President Joe Biden’s latest announcement of an executive order that would allow undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to remain in the country and obtain a work visa is an excellent decision.
It is a wise move for his re-election campaign, but more importantly, it is a strong moral decision, which has been lacking in such policies recently. It will also strengthen the U.S. economy and society.
Undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens are in a category that should not even exist, but unfortunately it does. There is often a great difficulty of changing one’s status even after being married depending on the circumstances and administration. In some situations, a spouse needs to leave the country for several years to be able to legalize his or her status. This separates husbands and wives – and perhaps even more tragically – it separates children from their parents.
The order is a wise political decision from Biden. He has often lived in an echo chamber and has thought that if he just moves further to the right and tries to appease conservatives, he will win. This is apparent in his policy towards Gaza, where he’s ignored his more anti-war base consistently, and instead, continued to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is also clear in his latest executive order at the border, which greatly curtails asylum and sets a dangerous precedent. The Republicans will still say he does not support Israel enough and wants open borders. He does not gain any support for his conservative policies. What he has done is further alienate his base and lost the youth vote.
But the immigration order is one of the first decisions he has made recently that could be positive for his reelection. He has, unfortunately, largely ignored the issues related to undocumented immigrants and providing them a pathway towards citizenship. This order makes a small step in that direction and could help him recover some support among some immigrant and Latino communities where he has been losing ground.
There has been some understandable exacerbation among undocumented immigrants since new asylum seekers have been able to get work visas while waiting on their cases (which I think is the right policy). However, oftentimes people who have been living undocumented in the country for years have been excluded, and there seems to be a double standard. This new policy begins to address this disconnect.
More importantly, Biden’s new order is the correct moral decision. Families should not be separated due to immigration policy. We should be beyond that in 2024. If we want to be a nation that stands by the values of freedom, justice and liberty that we will celebrate in just a few weeks, we cannot allow husbands and wives, parents and children to be separated due to arbitrary immigration policies.
As a nation, it is also to our benefit. We are not just allowing migrants to stay or come in out of the goodness of our hearts. Our society and economy depend on it. We have a worker shortage and declining birth rates. We need greater immigration for our economy and society to thrive.
This executive order is a common-sense move that can help people obtain work visas, come out of the shadows and be able to more fully be part of the American economy. I hope President Biden continues to make decisions like this. If so, he might have a chance to win in November and save our republic in the process.
Summerville resident Will McCorkle teaches educational foundations and social studies education at a Charleston college.
More than an old field?
Here’s an old field somewhere in South Caorlina. What and where is it? Why might it have relevance this week? Send your name, hometown and guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s mystery, “Old-timey mural,” came from Bill Segars of Hartsville. It shows a Revolutionary War scene called “Francis Marion Reflections,” on a wall in downtown Manning.
Amateur genealogist Elizabeth Jones of Columbia, who has been researching her family’s Revolutionary War history, was thrilled with the photo that showed Marion: “Known as the Swamp Fox for cunning and sly maneuvers in battle, he is immortalized by the S.C. Picture Project and depictions of Gen. Marion and his men of the brigade on the Swamp Fox Trail. Their Revolutionary War battles throughout the area and across South Carolina are legendary. … This mural is one of 17, so far. Thanks to General Francis Marion and his men, and the patriots in families such as mine throughout the Southeastern seaboard, we do not have to pledge loyalty to King Charles of England.”
Hats off to other sleuths who identified the mural: Michael Webb of Hartsville; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Steve Willis of Lancaster; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Willard Strong of Manning; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Penny Forrester of Tallahassee, Fla.; Pat Keadle of Perry; Barry Wingard and Jacie Godfrey, both of Florence; Will Williams of Aiken; Jay Altman of Columbia; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; and G.C. Summers.
- Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Enjoyed article on growing up in South
To the editor:
Enjoyed your writing in subject article. I too miss “the good old days.”
But aren’t things relative. The conditions of growing up have changed, but we still have to live in the land that God provides.
– John Hart, Columbia
Spot-on cartoon
To the editor:
Your current cartoon [“Taking us backwards”] is spot on as usual. Much as so many seem to want, time does not go backward.
– Peggy Baker
Send us your thoughts
We encourage you to send in your thoughts about policy and politics impacting South Carolina. We’ve gotten some letters in the last few weeks – some positive, others nasty. We print non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your thoughts.
- Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
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