Credit:rui_noronha
On Thursday, March 28, 2024, the South Carolina House of Representatives approved H.5118, the “South Carolina Energy Security Act.” This highly costly and risky piece of legislation would expand fossil-fueled electric power generation and slow the development of renewable energy. House Speaker Murrell Smith sponsored the bill, and Upstate Representative Jay West (R-Belton) led the charge to pass it. Despite concerns raised regarding potential cost overruns, rate increases, and climate change, a dominant majority in the House repeatedly voted down proposed consumer and environmental protection amendments to the bill.
The legislation supports two electric utility companies that serve coastal and Midlands customers (Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper) in their efforts to build a major new fossil gas power plant to be built on the Edisto River that would require new interstate pipelines to bring the fossil gas in from out of state and over 100 miles of upgraded electric power lines. The legislation also similarly encourages Duke Energy, which serves the Upstate and Pee Dee regions of the state, to build new gas-fired power plants.
Additionally, H.5118 would enlist two state government agencies to help develop gas pipelines, and would instruct environmental protection agencies to speed through environmental review. Dominion and Santee Cooper say the power plant is urgently needed to meet the growing electric demand due to economic growth, but the plant would not come online for at least seven years.
What’s more, electric customers would pay for the power plant and pipeline—estimated to be in the billions of dollars—on their electric bills for decades to come.
Passage of the bill marks a major pivot away from the spirit of utility regulatory reform that has held sway in South Carolina following the abandonment of the $9 billion V.C. Sumner nuclear power project in 2017, which cost billions of dollars and led to large rate increases with zero power produced. Surprisingly, given this recent history, H.5118 would again open the door to customers paying for similar risky plans.
Who is For and Against?
The American Petroleum Institute testified in favor of the bill. Numerous environmental and consumer advocates testified against it.
Environmental advocates pointed out that the bill would increase Dominion Energy’s dependence on fossil gas from its current 40% of energy produced to almost 60%. In addition to the direct environmental damage caused by the resulting increased air emissions and water withdrawals for the power plants, environmental witnesses testified that the increased fossil gas dependence would create a huge cost risk for Dominion’s customers. Fossil gas is among the most economically volatile commodities in the world. Not to mention the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue new rules within weeks that would effectively limit operations of the new power plant without expensive upgrades, making it even more economically unviable.
Consumer advocates also decried H.5118 as a legislative effort to put a thumb on the scales of future regulatory proceedings that would be needed to approve the costly power plants. They also criticized the proposal to move the state Office of Consumer Advocate to the Office of Regulatory Staff, which would give the state’s consumer advocate a duty to support the financial integrity of utility companies. These changes would make it difficult for electric utilities to be held accountable.
The List of Problems Continues…
While the legislation would make it easier for utilities to push through risky fossil fuel investments, it would make it harder for independent solar companies to develop projects in the state. Independent power producers are a competitor to monopoly electric utilities; since solar is a lower-cost resource than most new fossil fuels, independent developers of solar can be a threat to the utility’s plans to shore up profits for their shareholders.
So how does the bill make it harder for independent solar developers? It would shorten the time period for contracts that finance renewable energy facilities from 10 years to 5 years and increase the cost to permit new solar farms.
The next step for the legislation will be consideration in the SC Senate, where Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), in particular, has indicated interest in amending the House bill to improve consumer and environmental protection. We are monitoring the progress of this legislation and potential amendments, so stay tuned for more updates.
Email Your Legislators to Stop H. 5118
The post SC House Passes Legislation Favoring Fossil Fuel Expansion Over Renewable Electricity appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
SC House Passes Legislation Favoring Fossil Fuel Expansion Over Renewable Electricity
Renewable Energy
As Europe Shuns Chinese Turbines and Components, Who Will Fill the Gap?
Weather Guard Lightning Tech

As Europe Shuns Chinese Turbines and Components, Who Will Fill the Gap?
While most of Europe has spent most of this year itemizing reasons it cannot, should not, and will not use Chinese wind turbines or components, accusations and arm-twisting tactics have garnered most of the attention.
But we invite you to consider a future – maybe just five, or ten years from now?- in which those same countries and companies are eagerly awaiting orders from wind turbine manufacturing facilities in… India.
What?!
You know that the country has a lot of installed wind.
You may think – and many in the industry would agree – that India’s blade manufacturers are a few revs behind blade-makers elsewhere in the world. But the country is newly committed to manufacturing and it’s busy installing more – provided that it’s made in India, with Indian technology, by Indian workers.
Of course, similar domestic-focused policy currents are running through European countries – where wind OEMs are almost inarguably a decade ahead of Indian manufacturers. But there’s an important reason why we say, “watch India” in wind turbine manufacturing.
It’s because you might learn something.
If you follow The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, you probably heard this discussion a few weeks ago. It wasn’t the headline story – we try to highlight as many major news items and trends that we can, and follow up as credible information becomes available. India’s quiet moves to strengthen its own renewable energy industries didn’t grab the headlines. But it comprised a good bit of our panelists’ discussion.
With India’s expanding manufacturing capacity, and Suzlon’s strategic offerings for the European market (Blue Sky), there are reasons for European developers to take a closer look at Indian manufacturers.
If Europe continues to squelch deals with Chinese manufacturers due to data security issues, India is a relatively obvious candidate to fill the void, for several reasons:
- The country has depth and breadth in R&D: India (Suzlon, specifically) has a track record of involvement and relationships across the continent, as it operates research and development centers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
- Indian service providers have reach: Inox and Adoni Wind operate multiple wind turbine manufacturing plants and wind farms throughout several Indian states, and Apraava Energy has been commissioning wind projects, working with multiple OEMs, for more than 16 years.
- The country’s energy sector has size: Tata Power is estimated to be worth about US$16 billion and employs 22,000 people.
And major manufacturers from other countries have had a strong presence in the country for years:
- GE Vernova has turbine blade and nacelle manufacturing operations and multiple tech/R&D centers in India;
- Vestas has a R&D technology center in Chennai; and
- China’s SANY Wind has had assembly facilities in India since 2017, and in 2024, it signed a licensing agreement with JSW allowing SANY to manufacture blades and generators for JSW – enabling JSW Neo Energy to produce wind turbine generators and major components in-country.
So while there is hard data suggesting that India is already a global hub for wind turbines, sometimes the real strength comes from soft skills. Like sharing information.
We’ve noticed that Indian manufactures aren’t stingy with information. They share what they learn in the field and on the shop floor, so that the whole industry can move faster to solve problems. That bodes well for the industry overall, and particularly well for companies who figure out how to solve problems that some manufacturers aren’t even ready to admit to having.
We’ll be watching India with a great deal of interest in the coming months. Subscribe to The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast and follow along with us.
We’re not financial analysts. We’re engineers who watch the wind industry very closely. This is what we’ve noticed, and we thought it was worth sharing.
Where do you think you’ll be looking for solutions, components, and service providers in the next few years or the next decade? Tell us what you think. We’d love to hear from you.
As Europe Shuns Chinese Turbines and Components, Who Will Fill the Gap?
Renewable Energy
When You Write for Idiots, You Can Get Away with Anything
To the author of the meme here:
“Either” refers to two choices; “any” refers to three or more.
More importantly, it’s amazing how shamelessly the ultra-right wing exaggerates. The left side of the Democratic party would like to see the United States look like social democracies in places like Scandinavia. Having government programs that benefit the common person, e.g., Social Security, public schools, emergency relief, libraries, environmental responsibility, etc., does not equate to Stalinism.
Renewable Energy
Are Muslims “Dangerous?”
Some of my old prep school chums from the Class of 1973 convene via Zoom approximately every six weeks for a 90-minute discussion of current events, science, and anything else that sounds interesting.
Our professions range from medicine, law, finance, and business management. All from highly ranked colleges. Over 50% hold doctorate degrees.
Here’s something I find fascinating about the group: it includes one right-wing conservative. I don’t mean a Reaganite; I mean a Trump supporter. This guy is incapable of any thought that doesn’t come directly from Nexsmax.
It’s almost eerie how closely he toes the line of the far-right. Yesterday he echoed the Newsmax talking point and told the group that all Muslims holding public office are “very dangerous” and should be removed.
Now, the rest of us are sitting there, dumbfounded at this idea, unwilling waste our breath on this racist and utterly preposterous concept.
All this raises the question: How are our political viewpoints formed? How much of this is genetics? Epigenetics? Early childhood experiences? How do take a boy from among the best environments and turn him into someone who struggles to understand the most basic principles on which our country was founded?
https://www.2greenenergy.com/2026/11/09/principles-country-was-founded/
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