H.4325 would require the Public Service Commission (PSC) to adopt regulations that enable and encourage utilities to negotiate with and enter into “provisional and conditional power purchase agreements” with offshore wind energy developers. The PSC would also be required to hold biennial open progress reporting meetings on offshore wind energy development in South Carolina, for 2 years after this bill becomes law.
As the Policy Council wrote of a similar bill (S.1011) last year, “the state already subsidizes non-renewable energy sources such as nuclear energy through advanced cost recovery, and to a lesser degree, subsidizes renewable energy through tax favors and grants to research facilities. Unsurprisingly, neither of these policies has generated very favorable results for taxpayers or South Carolina’s economy.” Lawmakers should be looking to lessen the state’s detrimental involvement in the energy market, not increase it.