COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina House leadership employed a strategic move to push through controversial energy legislation that faced reluctance in the Senate.
With only three days remaining in the legislative session, lawmakers are at an impasse over a contentious energy reform bill that would approve a natural gas power plant collaboration between Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper in Colleton County.
This bill also includes provisions to roll back multiple regulatory measures.
While the bill successfully passed the House last month, it has encountered a stall in the Senate.
In an attempt to revive the bill, the Chairman of the House Labor, Commerce, and Industry Committee, Representative Bill Sandifer, attached the entire 34,000-word energy package to five unrelated Senate bills.
These bills encompass various topics such as suicide prevention training, cancer coverage for firefighters, and combating financial crimes.
"The speaker has asked very much that we try to get our bill over so the Senate has an opportunity to pass it,” Sandifer said during a committee meeting late last month.
Typically, amendments that do not align with the bill's subject matter are rejected.
However, Sandifer utilized a lesser-known rule that permits any bill passed by the House to be amended onto any Senate legislation in the House committee process.
Democratic members, including Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, have criticized this move.
"What the actions of the House last week pretty much say to the Senate, if you want to do something about suicide prevention, then you're going to take this liquid natural gas plan,” said Cobb-Hunter. “There were other bills that they could have attached this liquid natural gas plant action to, and I'm offended that they chose those important bills to do so.”
The Senate now faces the decision to either reject the legislation or agree to a conference committee, where three members from each chamber will work to reconcile differences.
However, there is the possibility that both sides could refuse to reach an agreement, which would necessitate reintroducing the bills next year.
By law, the session must conclude by 5 PM Thursday. If the bill fails to pass both chambers and get assigned to a conference committee, it will be officially dead.
