Commentary: SC gas grab favors utility profit over climate realities - The Post and Courier

Commentary: SC gas grab favors utility profit over climate realities | Commentary | postandcourier.com

Finding that your favorite beach spot on Folly or Isle of Palms is shrinking? Facing sky-high insurance bills for damage to your car or home during recent storms and floods? Pay attention to action on energy in the Statehouse this year.

Energy legislation with the potential to either alleviate or worsen those concerns is gaining steam and could end up costing us all. At the crux is an industry-funded push to dramatically ramp up gas use, starting with a brand-new gas plant that Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper want to build at the former Canadys coal site.

Last fall’s release of the fifth National Climate Assessment confirmed what we are seeing firsthand. The Southeast faces increasing severe hazards from extreme heat, drought, unpredictable severe weather events and flooding from extreme rainfall and sea level rise. Charleston will see another foot of sea level rise by 2050. Sunny-day floods are now routine; 2023 had 75 days of tidal flood events. In the 1950s and 1960s we had two. The solution is clear: Reduce fossil fuel pollution to slow the pace of the rapidly changing climate, or escalate the dangerous, costly and devastating impacts.

Billions of dollars in federal incentives are available to boost clean energy. Until the gas industry turned its screws there were promising signs that legislators were exploring avenues to put them to use through improved transmission planning, expanded market access for renewables and support of energy storage and efficiency improvements. Now bills being debated in Columbia sideline those opportunities while ignoring all of us who are cleaning up after soaking storms.

They double down on dirty, expensive methane gas by letting pipelines skip health and safety reviews and fast-tracking a gas plant even while expert testimony demonstrated that battery storage and renewables offer the best near-term path forward. As one expert asked during regulatory proceedings, “why should ratepayers pay 100% for a new gas resource when they can get a 30% to 50% discount on new solar storage and other clean energy technologies?” Santee Cooper spent so much on gas last year that its credit rating took a hit.

A study released recently by Conservatives for Clean Energy found that 71% of South Carolina voters support clean energy development. So what’s keeping Santee Cooper and Dominion from investing in renewable energy?

It’s all about the money.

Oil and gas industry spending on lobbying topped $124 million last year. Williams Company, which is poised to expand the Transco Pipeline through our Upstate, spent more than $1 million on lobbying and raked in nearly $7 billion in profits. The utilities have a profit motive to build big, expensive gas plants.

The Pearl Street Station Finance Lab found utilities nationwide had a roughly 10% annual return on their capital spending over the past 35 years. Monopoly utilities in the Southeast had the highest profit margins in 2020 among the nation’s top 70 major utilities. When they build big, they get to earn more profit, and you pay for it.

They are doubly incentivized to build big fossil plants because customers, not utilities, pay for 100% of the expensive gas and coal used to run the plants. Last year alone, S.C. customers saw their bills increase by 16% to 22% per month. And that’s not including general rate increases, which both Dominion and Duke Carolinas plan to ask for this year, that will raise power bills even more.

Bill hikes are just the beginning. Taxpayers are paying handsomely for climate disasters. More than $2 billion was needed to help South Carolina recover from major storms from 2015-22. The Charleston sea wall’s price tag tops $1 billion. Homeowners are facing eye-popping insurance premium increases.

Coastal mayors are looking for billions more to defend against flooding and erosion. In 2020, the city of Charleston sued oil and gas companies seeking funds for climate damages resulting from reckless expansion of fossil fuels while intentionally failing to warn consumers of the dangers.

It’s time to connect the dots. We can’t afford to dramatically expand dirty methane gas amid growing climate impacts. It is time to meaningfully invest in the clean energy transition.

Alys Campaigne is the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Climate Initiative Leader.