Latest news with #SanteeCooper
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Storm leaves more than 9,000 without power in Horry, Georgetown counties
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Nearly 9,300 Horry Electric Cooperative and Santee Cooper customers are without power after a strong storm moved across the Grand Strand shortly before 7 p.m. The bulk of the Santee Cooper outages are in the Carolina Forest area, according to the utility's online outage map. There are also outages near Litchfield and Pawleys Island in Georgetown County and north of Bucksville in Horry County. The Horry Electric outages are spread across the county. The storm, which generated a brief tornado warning in southeastern Robeson County before trekking toward the Grand Strand, also knocked down some tents in downtown Myrtle Beach, where setup was underway for the Carolina Country Music Fest, which is set for June 5-8. Numerous trees were also reported down across the region. This is a developing story. Count on News13 for updates. * * * Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Carolina cellphone bill passes on last day of legislative session
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – Today is the last day of the legislative session in South Carolina. Governor Henry McMaster has signed several bills into law, and more are sitting on his desk, waiting for approval; but Lawmakers have been working since January, and won't return again until next year. At that time, they'll have one more chance to push any bills through to the governor's desk. This legislative session lawmakers passed the Hands-Free Act, which cracks down on using cellphones while driving. The law also states if police can pull people over if they have a reason to suspect the driver is on their phone. Despite its passage, the bill had strong opposition from some Democrats, who said police could use the cellphones as an excuse to pull someone over. 'I think we all want to see safer roads. We all want to see drivers that are less distracted. My greatest concern is that the bill will allow for discrimination, ' said Representative Kambrell Garvin (D – Richland), who voted against the bill. Fallen South Carolina officers inducted into law enforcement Hall of Fame Representative Bill Taylor (R – Aiken) has tried to pass this bill many times, saying that the state's seatbelt rule is equivalent. 'Discrimination, that hasn't been proven, and no one's ever said that. It's the same with this. If they see you with a phone in your hand, you're breaking the law. ' Another bill that pushed through this week deals with the state's energy supply. It creates a partnership between Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper to build a natural gas plant in the midlands. Senator Shane Massey (R – Edgefield) said if this bill were not passed, it would hurt every South Carolinian. 'Your constituents are going to be paying more for energy. They're going to be paying more for energy because of the cost of generation.' On the education front, Lawmakers pushed forward a bill that would give K-12 students public money to attend private schools. The original law was ruled unconstitutional because of how the public's funds were used. Lawmakers hope that adding a third-party person to oversee the funds will help. 'The education scholarship trust fund has been a long and rocky path sometimes. We've been working on it now for five years,' said bill's main supporter and advocator Senator Greg Hembree (R – Horry). But still not everyone's in agreement. 'I think there's a strong chance that this ends up in court again. That it potentially gets struck down again. Ultimately this should be left for voters to decide if they want this,' said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association. There are still hundreds of bills left to be debated, but remember this was just the first year of a two-year legislative session. Lawmakers will pick back up where they left off in January of next year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Last day of first of two year Legislative Session
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – Today is the last day of the legislative session in South Carolina. Governor Henry McMaster has signed several bills into law, and more are sitting on his desk, waiting for approval; but Lawmakers have been working since January, and won't return again until next year. At that time, they'll have one more chance to push any bills through to the governor's desk. This legislative session lawmakers passed the Hands-Free Act, which cracks down on using cell phones while driving. The law also states if police can pull people over if they have a reason to suspect the driver is on their phone. Despite its passage, the bill had strong opposition from some Democrats, who said police could use the cell phones as an excuse to pull someone over. 'I think we all want to see safer roads. We all want to see drivers that are less distracted. My greatest concern is that the bill will allow for discrimination, ' said Representative Kambrell Garvin (D – Richland), who voted against the bill. Representative Bill Taylor (R – Aiken) has tried to pass this bill many times, saying that the state's seatbelt rule is equivalent. 'Discrimination, that hasn't been proven, and no one's ever said that. It's the same with this. If they see you with a phone in your hand, you're breaking the law. ' Another bill that pushed through this week deals with the state's energy supply. It creates a partnership between Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper to build a natural gas plant in the midlands. Senator Shane Massey (R – Edgefield) said if this bill were not passed, it would hurt every South Carolinian. 'Your constituents are going to be paying more for energy. They're going to be paying more for energy because of the cost of generation.' On the education front, Lawmakers pushed forward a bill that would give K-12 students public money to attend private schools. The original law was ruled unconstitutional because of how the public's funds were used. Lawmakers hope that adding a third-party person to oversee the funds will help. 'The education scholarship trust fund has been a long and rocky path sometimes. We've been working on it now for 5 years,' said bill's main supporter and advocator Senator Greg Hembree (R – Horry). But still not everyone's in agreement. 'I think there's a strong chance that this ends up in court again. That it potentially gets struck down again. Ultimately this should be left for voters to decide if they want this,' said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association. There are still hundreds of bills left to be debated, but remember this was just the first year of a two-year legislative session. Lawmakers will pick back up where they left off in January of next year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate passes sweeping energy bill aimed at meeting SC's growing power needs
GOP Sens. Chip Campsen, Majority Leader Shane Massey and Stephen Goldfinch chat in the Senate chamber. The Senate passed legislation Thursday, April 3, 2025, clearing the path for a new power plant and addressing the future of energy in the rapidly growing state. (File/Mary Ann Chastain/SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA — The Senate passed a long-anticipated bill clearing the path for a new power plant in South Carolina and fulfilling its pledge to address future energy needs in the rapidly growing Palmetto State. The legislation, approved 41-3, saw major changes to the sweeping energy bill halted last session over criticism that proponents had fast-tracked it through the General Assembly. Backers say it strikes a balance, empowering utilities charged with meeting the state's energy needs but in a way that's more palatable to consumer and environmental advocates. The three Republicans voting 'no' included Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey. 'We still have concerns but it's nothing like what it would have been,' said Frank Knapp, president of the state's Small Business Chamber of Commerce, who advocates on behalf of small business owners in the state. The bill, sponsored by GOP House Speaker Murrell Smith of Sumter gives permission for Dominion Energy and state-owned utility company Santee Cooper to partner on a possible 2,000-megawatt natural gas plant on the site of a former coal-fired power plant along the Edisto River in Colleton County. Santee Cooper customers should expect a double cost hike in 2025 after years of frozen rates In its original form, the legislation saw significant pushback on its sweeping regulatory changes and rollback of consumer protections passed in the wake of South Carolina's failed nuclear expansion. Santee Cooper and Dominion's predecessor, South Carolina Electric & Gas, abandoned an expansion of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Fairfield County in 2017, but not before they'd already jointly spent $9 billion. The debacle left power customers on the hook for much of that cost on a power plant that never produced a single kilowatt. Angered by the failure, which was fraught with fraud and cost overruns, legislators cracked down. They fired and replaced the state's utility regulators, loosened the leash on the state's utility watchdog and put an extra set of eyes looking out for power customers in the state's consumer protection agency. As originally proposed, the House bill would have undone some of that work, consumer groups warned. In response to those concerns, new committee-level leadership in the House made its own changes: keeping the consumer advocate in place and doing away with a proposal that would have reduced the size of the panel regulating power companies in the state. Here's how much SC power customers are still paying for a failed nuclear project The Senate, in a debate that stretched nearly until midnight Wednesday, tweaked the House legislation further after leadership cautioned against changes that could swing the law too far in power companies' favor following the nuclear fiasco. 'Those who are Santee Cooper or Dominion customers, you are paying for V.C. Summer. You're going to be paying for V.C. Summer for the next 14 years even though you're not getting anything from it. And now the proposal is that we pay to build a new gas plant at Canadys,' said Massey, R-Edgefield. 'That is my biggest heartburn on this.' 'They're essentially going to be asking, if not forcing, customers to pay for two power plants when they only needed one,' he added. The companies will still need the OK of state regulators to begin construction, as well as state and federal permits to connect to an interstate natural gas line needed to fuel the plant. The other two Republicans voting 'no' were Sens. Shane Martin of Spartanburg County and Tom Corbin of Greenville County. Massey, who co-led a Senate investigation into the V.C. Summer debacle, voted against it over his continued disgust over the nuclear fallout, but not before pushing for major changes. Among those Senate changes are limitations on power-related incentives the state allows for data centers. Massey said the amendment mirrors efforts by utility regulators in Georgia to say the cost of providing electricity to these centers, full of power-gobbling computer servers that run technologies ranging from artificial intelligence and 5G streaming of videos on mobile devices to high-speed financial trades, is borne by those companies. Utility executives have testified that the largest of these centers can use upwards of 200 megawatts each and are a driving force, over and above residential and manufacturing growth, behind the state's need for more power. Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, told the Senate that power usage by data centers in South Carolina is equivalent to 65% of demand from residential customers. Data centers gobble up energy. Should SC block them from getting special deals? At the same time, Dominion brokered a discount electricity deal for a $510 million Google data center proposed near Summerville. The deal, approved by utility regulators last year, allowed the Virginia-headquartered utility to grant Google a special 'economic development rider' rate — 6 cents for every kilowatt hour, compared to 14 cents that residential customers were paying at the time. Utilities have said, even if data centers don't come, South Carolina will need more power to meet federal regulations requiring them to eventually shut down coal-fired plants in favor of more carbon-friendly options. But if more of these center for come to the state after May 30, 2025, Massey said he wants them to pay an equivalent share of the costs for power plants built to serve them. Still, the bill contains some wins for utility companies, too. It starts by setting time limits on the environmental permitting process, as well as lawsuits that power executives testified are often used to drag out the building of new power plants and natural gas pipelines for decades, to the point that theconstruction projects are no longer financially feasible. The House took steps to limit the permitting timeline to six months. SC nuclear reboot sees interest from big tech, large utilities To appease environmental concerns, the Senate passed an amendment to say the clock doesn't start until regulators deem an environmental application is completely filled out. The change came after the Conservation Voters of South Carolina said it's not uncommon for companies to submit these applications while they're still missing all of the information needed to evaluate them. The Senate also added a provision urging South Carolina's court system to handle legal appeals of permitting decisions within a year's time. And the bill pulls the state Appeals Court from the series of courts that hear these cases. 'I do think that the appellate process has been abused and and that's why I think we ought to shorten that process,' Massey said. Finally, the Senate added a section to the bill that would make it easier for utilities to raise power bills on an annual basis. In their pitch, utility executives testified about comments from customers made during the company's recent rate hike. Dominion's South Carolina President Keller Kissam said customers asked why the utility didn't raise rates on a smaller but more frequent basis, making it easier for those on a fixed income to adjust. Kissam said the state uses a similar process for natural gas rates. Utilities would go before regulators annually for up to five years to seek permission to raise prices. Rate payers can still protest and regulators still have the final say so over whether expenses meet the necessary requirements for an increase. But the process is less in depth because it doesn't call into question a utility company's allowed profit margin. The process includes a cap. So, unlike the legislation that paved the way for the V.C. Summer debacle, it can't be used to pay for a major project, such as the proposed Canadys gas plant, while it's still under construction. Consumer advocates, environmental groups and businesses organizations, large and small, opposed the measure. They argued, while gradual annual increases might ease the burden for customers, power companies also would be less incentivized to hold down costs. The state would review the process after five years to determine if its working the way utilities claim. A 38-3 vote Thursday sent the roughly 70-page bill back to the House, which can choose to accept the Senate changes or vote to negotiate the matter further in conference committee.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former Horry Electric Cooperative user questions utility's rate restructure
CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — Horry County Electric Cooperative's new restructuring rate lets members see exactly how much power they're consuming — and how much money they can save by waiting until off-peak hours to run some of their appliances. But for Joshua Brentnall, a former Horry Electric customer now with Santee Cooper, even those adjustments cost too much for people who are on fixed incomes. 'Sometimes, people don't have that benefit to ahead and utilize that for the cheaper electricity,' he said. 'People sometimes are forced to get second jobs, and they're forced to use electricity during the (peak) times. That's extremely expensive.' Horry Electric officials say the restructuring isn't a rate increase, and if anyone has concerns about their bill to contact the company directly. Brentnall said it was difficult for his family to avoid using electricity during peak hours when he was with Horry Electric, for his mother's safety. 'She had medical issues. She needed to see where she was walking. She just can't walk around in the dark and hope for the best,' he said. 'I feel it's not fair for those that are on a fixed income, for the retirees or the veterans that served our country and are being forced into this program without the right to appeal the decision.' Horry Electric says the peak charge comes from the single highest hour of use during the most in-demand portions of a billing cycle. 'You can't compare bills month-to-month, because temperatures are not related month-to-month,' said Horry Electric Cooperative spokeswoman Jennifer Cummings. 'You also want to look at temperatures from year to year.' Cummings said peak hours shift from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. from April 1 through Oct. 31. * * * Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and read more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
