State Policy

The completion of the State Resilience Plan by the SC Office of Resilience (SCOR) in 2023 provided a blueprint of how to build resilient communities at local, regional, and statewide levels. In 2025, we will continue to work with the agency and statewide partners to advance the Plan’s recommendations with a particular focus on initiatives that would enhance resilience in the Upstate. With Upstate Forever’s expertise in Watershed-Based Planning, we will work with SCOR and our regional partners on their new Watershed-Based Resilience Planning Program to ensure local governments and communities have the resources they need to implement plans that enhance local resilience to flooding and projects, such as microgrids, that increase community resilience from storms and peak electric load events.

Our state’s leaders are looking to foster additional economic development and the resilience of the power sector. Each of these initiatives will drive growth to the Upstate’s cities, surrounding neighborhoods, and rural areas. We will use these conversations to explore thoughtful mechanisms to increase the availability of affordable and workforce housing across the region and expand access and use of planning tools, such as concurrency programs, that help local governments meet the needs of their communities.

While there is growing interest among landowners in land protection, many cannot afford the upfront expenses required to protect their land — fees for appraisals, attorneys, and stewardship endowments, for example. One of the tools we use to address those barriers is funding assistance from the South Carolina Conservation Bank (SCCB). With the current rate of development combined with the clear need for more public access to natural spaces, it is critical that the budget for SCCB grants reflects the expanding interests by landowners, land trusts, municipalities, and other land protection groups. This year, we will continue to support full funding for the SCCB and share direct impacts of funded conservation projects with lawmakers. Building on the success of the 2024 Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act and establishment of the Working Agricultural Lands Fund, we will continue to support dedicated funding for the Fund and work with Upstate farmers and the SC Farm Bureau to promote use of the program.

South Carolina currently offers income tax credits for individuals who place their property under a conservation easement, proportional to the acreage conserved. While this is an important incentive to encourage participation in land conservation, the credit hasn’t been updated in over 15 years. We support legislation that increases the tax credit in an amount that keeps up with the rise in land values across the state.

The Upstate has played an outsized role in South Carolina’s economic development boom, a trend that is expected to continue over the next few years. How and where we build the energy infrastructure necessary to power new and existing industry are essential questions both local and state leaders need to consider to ensure residents don’t bear the unnecessary financial and environmental costs of this energy buildout.

Through thorough permitting and public input processes, we can avoid potential conflict between communities and utilities and prevent history from repeating itself in the Upstate communities that have experienced pipeline leaks and fuel spills, contaminated rivers and drinking water, property loss, harmful emissions, and high energy bills. Another solution is enhanced coordination among local governments, utilities, and communities to ensure future land use plans match with utility plans. We will work with state lawmakers to improve legislation aimed at expediting energy infrastructure buildout and will introduce new measures for accountability, public input, and the protection of private property rights.

Our current energy landscape is showing strain, as reflected by intense rate hikes passed along to customers, constraints on fuel supply, and incoming industries expressing concern over the lack of access to clean energy options. Adding to this, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy ranked South Carolina as one of the least energy efficient states in the country. We should do everything in our power to “fix the leak” to reduce residential energy bills and mitigate the growing demand for energy.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to transform the way we generate and deliver energy while balancing affordability, reliability, and clean energy goals. Through direct engagement with energy providers and collaboration with other energy advocacy groups, we will continue to discuss solutions that hold utilities accountable, increase investment in energy efficiency, solar and battery storage, and minimize financial burdens to customers. Through our involvement at the Public Service Commission and SC Statehouse, we will advocate for more effective utility regulation, ratepayer protections, investments in clean energy resources, public accountability, and incentives for the adoption of clean energy by residents and industry.

With South Carolina’s rapid population growth and industrial expansion, water resource management is at a pivotal point. The SC Department of Natural Resources initiated the State Water Plan in 1998 to ensure sustainable water use over a 50-year horizon. Efforts were bolstered in 2018 with the creation of River Basin Councils (RBCs), which develop localized, stakeholder-driven plans for the state’s eight major river basins to be included in an updated State Water Plan. Upstate Forever serves on three RBCs to ensure the plans reflect a balanced approach to water management while protecting the Upstate’s critical waterways and the species that rely on them.

Consensus among RBCs, other stakeholder groups, and even the US EPA have pointed to inadequacies in the 2010 Surface Water Withdrawal Act’s regulatory framework for current and future demands. The WaterSC working group, created by Executive Order 2024-22 as a continuation of the work initiated by SC DNR, will serve as the new forum for regulatory and legislative solutions to this challenge while updating the State Water Plan by December 2025. As a member of WaterSC, Upstate Forever looks forward to engaging with stakeholders to ensure sustainable and equitable water use for all sectors. We will also continue to educate lawmakers and the legislative Surface Water Study Committee and Senate Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee on issues related to surface water management.