‘Keep the wild places wild.’ Public opposes planned gas plant near SC’s ACE Basin

Miranda O’Reilly remembers floating down the Edisto River while growing up in Walterboro. She says she remembers seeing where the old coal plant once stood.

Now, a large natural gas plant may be built on the same location near the ACE Basin, about 20 miles from where O’Reilly lives and runs a farm with her husband and 11-month-old daughter.

For O’Reilly, the natural gas plant raises concerns about habitat destruction and pollution in the county where she grew up.

“I have a small daughter, so I want her to grow up in a town that is clean and fueled by clean energy and not have to be as a baby destined to live in a polluted area,” O’Reilly said after the meeting.

O’Reilly was one of roughly 20 individuals from around South Carolina to testify Monday evening on the natural gas plant developers say is necessary to keep the lights on. About 100 attendees, including local government leaders and environmental activists, filled the Walterboro Wildlife Center.

Some drove over an hour to voice opposition and participate in the Public Service Commission’s permitting process for a proposed roughly 2,200 megawatt natural gas plant in Colleton County. Utilities Dominion Energy and state-owned Santee Cooper were authorized to build the large gas plant together in a sweeping energy law passed by the state General Assembly last year.

The utilities will split the generated energy and $5 billion price tag. Dominion and Santee Cooper asked to build the plant in December, so the Public Service Commission should make a decision by mid-June.

Utilities across South Carolina have scaled up their electricity generation projects as more residents and planned new data centers drive up demand for power. The Canadys natural gas plant could also allow Dominion Energy to retire coal plants, president Keller Kissam said after the meeting.

“Do I like all the growth and everything going on in South Carolina? Can’t really say I do,” Kissam told reporters. “My family’s been here since the 1700s, but I’ll tell you, we have one obligation, and that is to serve the load. So when you flip the light switch in the studio at home, the power comes on. And that’s what Canadys is about.”

Opponents of the project worried the plant, which will be located on a former coal plant site, would cause pollution and disturb natural resources in the region. The gas plant will sit in Colleton County near the ACE Basin, a large nature preserve around the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers.

Some also wanted utilities to consider renewable energy projects instead of a new massive gas plant. Natural gas plants, though not as polluting as coal, still typically emit methane. Residents urged more solar projects, but Kissam said it wasn’t as reliable during the winter as natural gas.

While a majority of speakers spoke against the plant, two county leaders, including council member Steve Murdaugh, said they supported the project. Brantley Strickland, executive director of Colleton County Economic Alliance, told commissioners the natural gas plant would bring economic benefits to the region.

“You would think from the testimony that you’ve heard that it would be impossible to live in the ACE basin, support the ACE Basin and coexist with other industry and these type projects,” Murdaugh said. “That’s simply just not true.”

The plant will also require the build out of a 71-mile pipeline stretching across Colleton and Hampton counties, including through private properties. Environmentalists worried the pipeline could disturb natural habitats and future areas of the ACE Basin.

“I am tired of the lack of accountability and the destruction of natural resources to the population that lives and works here,” said Diane Valeri, a Jasper County resident.

“Let’s not repeat the mistakes we already understand too well,” she concluded. “Keep the wild places wild.”

Speakers also worried about whether the $5 billion cost to build the plant would raise rates for Dominion and Santee Cooper customers. Utilities told state lawmakers in mid-2024 their preliminary guess for the price of the plant was $2.5 billion. But in just over a year, the cost ballooned to $5 billion.

The pitch to build a natural gas plant at Canadys coincides with plans to develop a massive data center campus in Colleton County, which has also seen local backlash. Some Lowcountry residents claimed without new data centers, there would be no need for the plant.

Kissam, of Dominion, said new residents drove demand for the plant, not data centers. If new data centers came to Dominion’s service area, the utility would need to build even more generation to serve the electricity-hungry warehouses powering artificial intelligence and other digital services. Mollie Gore, a spokesperson for Santee Cooper, said the Canadys natural gas plant was needed to fill future projected demand from a mix of residential, industrial and large-load customers.

“You’ll need additional generation on top of this to serve all of the data centers that are out there,” Kissam said. “Because right now, we just don’t have any energy to even serve the data centers that are looking.”

Other public hearings on the gas plant are scheduled for 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. April 7 in Columbia, according to the project’s docket.