Hotlist: May 11, 2026
The final week of session has arrived, with lawmakers facing just three legislative days to wrap up the 2025–2026 legislative session.
Discussions over potential congressional redistricting disrupted normal Statehouse business last week as lawmakers considered re-drawing South Carolina’s congressional maps following the recent Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act.
Despite the frenzy over redistricting, there were several major wins for South Carolina’s environment, including:
- The Senate passed the SC Protected Lands Act (H.5069), a landmark conservation measure establishing a statewide goal of protecting seven million acres of land and water, or roughly one-third of the state!
- The Senate significantly improved the sweeping regulatory reform bill (H.3021) by removing provisions that threatened fundamental environmental, health, and safety protections.
- The House overwhelmingly rejected a budget proviso that rolled back offshore drilling protections in a 92–18 vote, matching a similar Senate rejection earlier this session.
Unfortunately, the House removed data center transparency and accountability measures that the Senate added to the state budget, though the Senate still has an opportunity to insist on them.
CVSC and partners will spend the final days of session working to move priority legislation across the finish line and ensure protections for South Carolina’s air, land, and water remain central as the House and Senate resolve differences on legislation.
Dive into the full Hotlist for a closer look at what happened last week and what to watch in the final days of session.
Updates
SC Protected Lands Act passes the Senate!
The SC Protected Lands Act (H.5069) received third reading in the Senate and passed with a near-unanimous vote last Thursday, meaning the bill, which sets ambitious land and water protection goals for South Carolina, has now passed both chambers.
The Senate amended the bill, preferring to keep the language ensuring collaboration among state land protection agencies as a budget proviso rather than codified law. This means the bill will be returned to the House for “concurrence,” where House members will vote to accept the Senate amendments. We are confident that the House will approve the changes with the blessing of the bill’s sponsor, Representative Travis Moore.
This is a big win for land and water protection in South Carolina that will guide conservation decisions at the Statehouse for decades to come. Visit our Action Center below to thank your senator for making ambitious conservation goals a top priority!
Offshore drilling protections challenged again
After a similar attempt in the Senate two weeks ago, Representative Stephen Frank of Greenville attempted to strip protections against offshore drilling that have been in the budget since 2016. Like in the Senate, the House swiftly voted to table his amendment preserving the protections for another year. CVSC applauds the House for standing up to this threat to South Carolina’s coast, and we will continue to monitor for challenges to these long-standing protections.
Senate makes major improvements to sweeping regulatory reform bill
Last week, the Senate took up the Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act (H.3021). While the bill’s goal of reducing outdated or unnecessary regulations is well-intentioned, the version passed by the House raised significant concerns about weakening long-standing protections for South Carolina’s environment, public health, safety, and economy.
Those concerns became evident during the committee process, where environmental organizations, professional associations, engineers, medical professionals, utilities, harbor pilots, aeronautics groups, and other stakeholders warned of the broad and unintended consequences the legislation could create.
In response, the Senate adopted a series of amendments aimed at preserving the bill’s core purpose, streamlining burdensome regulations for small businesses, without undermining critical safeguards.
We appreciate Senator Chip Campsen for helping navigate the complexity of the legislation and advancing a more balanced approach to regulatory reform. Key changes included removing automatic regulatory sunset provisions, eliminating arbitrary “one-in, two-out” requirements, and avoiding measures that would have slowed, increased costs, and reduced the effectiveness of the rulemaking process. The bill still retains strong requirements for reviewing and repealing unnecessary regulations, but uses the needed precision of a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer on our state’s regulatory system.
We are also grateful to Senator Brad Hutto, who championed an amendment removing a provision that required courts to defer against agency authority in regulatory matters. Senator Hutto artfully explained that decisions by courts should be on an even playing field and that the courts should defer to the laws passed by the General Assembly.
The bill now returns to the House, where lawmakers must decide whether to accept the Senate amendments or send the legislation to a conference committee. CVSC and partners will continue working with legislators to underscore the importance of maintaining these Senate improvements and protecting South Carolina’s environment, public health, and safety.
Data center developments
The House took up the state budget again last week to consider Senate changes, including three provisions aimed at increasing transparency and accountability for data center development. These measures require reporting on data center water use, disclosure of state sales tax exemptions utilized by data centers, and limitations on certain economic incentives offered through the Department of Commerce.
Unfortunately, the House removed these provisions before passing the budget. The budget now heads to a conference committee, where House and Senate members will negotiate final differences. The Senate still has the opportunity to insist on these measures during conference negotiations.
With the Legislature failing to advance broader guardrails for data center development this year, these budget provisions represent an important first step toward basic transparency and accountability. They would also provide critical information to help inform future policy discussions and more comprehensive reforms.
Use the link in our Action Center to urge legislators in both chambers to support keeping these protections in the final state budget.
Data center issues also resurfaced in the Senate last week during debate on H.5122, a bill creating new tax exemptions for telecommunications companies. An amendment by Senator Ed Sutton passed, preventing data centers from qualifying for the exemption, ensuring the state does not further incentivize large-scale data center development. Another amendment by Senator Allen Blackmon requiring data center water-use reporting was ruled nongermane. Still, the debate demonstrated continued Senate interest in advancing greater oversight and accountability for South Carolina’s data center growth.
Action Center
Here’s a round-up of current actions you can take to help us advance conservation policy during this legislative session. If you’ve already taken these actions, thank you! We’ll add more actions and provide updates as progress unfolds.
- Thank your Senator for supporting the SC Protected Lands Act
- Tell your legislator to support guardrails for new data center development
- Tell Public Service Commission regulators to stop the Edisto gas plant
Shoutouts
We’re proud to announce our largest cohort yet of Palmetto Leadership Academy fellows preparing to serve on boards and commissions across South Carolina! This milestone reflects growing momentum for community-based, conservation-minded leadership in public service. These fellows are graduating from the program after dedicating nine months to building the knowledge, skills, and confidence to lead on conservation in their communities. Join us in congratulating our newest PLA graduates and keep an eye out for applications opening soon!
The Legislative Hotlist is a weekly update from CVSC’s Senior Vice President of Policy & Government Relations, John Brooker. Sign up for emails to get the Hotlist delivered directly to your inbox!