13-02-2025
SC House passes bill to increase energy production for natural gas
Columbia S.C. (WSPA) – The South Carolina House of Representatives voted on a bill on Thursday, that could bring a more sustainable energy source to the state.
The bill would authorize utility companies Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper to work together to get natural gas into South Carolina.
'We're talking about all types of defenses, we're talking about prosperity, we're talking about keeping businesses here,' said Representative Gil Gatch, co-sponsor of the bill. 'It's really hard to keep businesses here in America when we can't provide the energy.'
Gatch said it's important to have a cost effective solution that can maintain energy needs for future generations.
He said building a gas plant near Charleston would help.
'We want to make sure we get natural gas in soon, to replace all of the energy that we are losing. We are going to lose about 50% of our energy generation in the next 10 years, and not only that, we have overwhelming population growth,' Gatch said.
Although this bill was passed by a majority vote, Representative Heather Bauer was one of the few to vote against it. She said this bill is off to a good start, but she wasn't ready to vote yes.
'I couldn't support it quite yet, there are still a lot of critical loopholes and regulatory and permitting processes that could really be exposed by bad actors,' Bauer said. 'That could really endanger clean water, air, and land in our state.'
This bill is similar to another energy bill that was debated in the house last session. Representative JA Moore voted for the previous version, but voted against the presented bill on Thursday.
'I'm having a real issue with some of the loopholes. There needs to be a lot of cleanups that need to happen,' Moore said. 'This isn't an anti, for me anyway, anti economic development vote, this is a look, the bill isn't where it needs to be, there's a lot that needs to be done, and at this current moment I was not about to vote 'yes.''
Gatch said the bill is aligned with several of President Trump's viewpoints about energy in America.
According to a spokesperson for the Senate GOP, the bill will be referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for Committee Work.
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