South Carolina House OKs bill they say will keep the lights on. Others worry oversight will be lost

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A wide-ranging bill backers say will ensure South Carolina has plenty of electric power passed a key vote Wednesday in the House, but opponents complained it would roll back billions of dollars in lessons learned after a proposed nuclear plant never generated a watt of power.

The 88-21 vote was almost all along party lines. The bill faces one more routine vote before heading to the Senate. That chamber’s leadership supports the idea of assuring future energy flows but is much more skeptical of removing oversight seven years after ratepayers lost billions when a pair of utilities were paid to build two nuclear reactors before they ever started working.

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.

Those efforts got more urgent after an unusual cold snap on Christmas Eve in 2022 nearly tapped out the power grid and could have led to rolling blackouts.

“The truth is the enviros lost,” said Republican Rep. Jay West, who has led the bill through the House. “And they are trying to hold our energy security hostage.”

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