A Clean and Just Energy System
South Carolinians are already seeing the impacts of our state’s overreliance on fossil fuels—from some of the highest energy bills in the nation, to sea level rise and chronic flooding, to hurricanes and extreme weather events. To respond, we must act quickly to limit our emissions but do so in a way that provides affordable and reliable energy for all South Carolinians.
CVSC works across the energy sector—from generation facilities, to transmission systems, to the point of use—to reduce emissions and transition to clean and affordable energy. We work with community partners, power companies, lawmakers, clean energy companies, and more as we fight for a just energy future that is powered by renewables.
Ensuring a clean and just energy future for South Carolina requires a continued effort at the legislature to transform our energy system. We are working to build on SC’s progress in the 2019 Energy Freedom Act and pursue new options to create an energy grid that works for ALL South Carolinians. This includes transitioning SC’s energy generation to affordable, clean energy while also increasing market competition to lower rates for SC ratepayers. We must ensure customer affordability, energy efficiency, and demand response are a key part of the clean energy transition and energy policy in our state.
While passing robust and equitable clean energy legislation is important, we also work to make sure these laws are implemented. Currently, we are working to ensure legislative victories like the Energy Freedom Act and the Santee Cooper reform package result in substantial progress for our state towards a clean and just energy future.
Power companies have a big impact on our energy future, so it’s important to hold them accountable. Our accountability work focuses on the Public Service Commission (PSC), the state agency that regulates power companies. Public participation is crucial at the PSC, which makes important policy decisions. It approves power companies’ long-term resource plans, which determine how power is generated in our state. It also approves increases to customer bills, and it determines how rooftop solar is compensated.
We work to increase public participation at the PSC, amplifying voices for clean, affordable energy. We educate the public and share opportunities to participate in decision-making through petitions and testimony.
For more information about the PSC, and for news and action opportunities, visit www.upowersc.com.
Note: We do not endorse Public Service Commissioner candidates.
We want clean energy that works for all South Carolinians. We must make sure that rural, low-wealth communities and communities of color aren’t paying a disproportionate amount of their income toward energy bills.
For South Carolina, this means ensuring that energy is affordable for all. Many South Carolinians experience very high energy bills, which represent a high percentage of their household income. The percentage of household income spent on energy bills is known as a household’s “energy burden.” Many households in our state have energy burdens well above 6% (generally recognized as the limit for affordability), with some households experiencing energy burdens exceeding 50%. To address this, CVSC and partners have created the Energy Justice Coalition, which is a nonpartisan collective of over 60 organizations across the four regions of South Carolina working to support communities experiencing high energy burdens, persistent energy inefficiency, and other inequities in the South Carolina energy system.
A just transition to clean energy also requires supporting communities at the frontline of the energy transition. As legacy coal plants are closed, we must seek a just transition for these communities and ensure they aren’t left behind in the transition to clean energy. We are currently working with the Georgetown community and Santee Cooper to help facilitate the development of an economic transition plan for workers and communities ahead of the Winyah Coal Plant closure.
2025–2026 Session: We’re actively working with legislators and stakeholders to develop a more balanced approach to energy reform legislation to create a cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable energy future for South Carolina. This includes promoting affordable clean energy options, increasing market competition, enhancing energy efficiency, and protecting crucial regulatory safeguards that protect customers and the environment.
Read more about our legislative priorities.
Last Session (2023–2024): In the last session, utilities pushed House Bill 5118, which was a dangerous and far-reaching energy bill. This bill would have fast-tracked a project to build major gas power plants and pipelines while simultaneously gutting regulatory safeguards for customers and the environment. Thanks to tireless advocates like you, this bill did not become a law!
Questions about our energy work?
Contact Energy Policy Director, John Brooker.
Our Impact
South Carolina is changing fast, and so are the challenges facing our environment. In response, CVSC has launched a bold 10-year Strategic Plan—a roadmap for achieving ambitious, long-term solutions to the state’s most pressing environmental threats. The plan focuses on electing conservation-minded leaders, protecting the spaces that sustain us, advancing clean energy, safeguarding water, and ensuring every South Carolinian has a voice in environmental decision-making.