Leading with Vision: Securing South Carolina’s Energy Future

South Carolina must have an all-of-the-above strategy in charting its electrical-energy future, with nuclear and natural gas providing baseload capacity, supplemented by renewables like solar. The (Charleston) Post & Courier has acknowledged my leadership role in developing our state’s policy: 

“Senator Tom Davis has become the essential consensus builder in the South Carolina Senate. He has street cred, regardless of the topic. His goal is to make sure South Carolina has enough electricity to meet its growing demand without destroying important environmental assets.”

In 2019, following the failed joint venture between SCE&G and Santee Cooper to build two new nuclear reactors, I authored the Energy Freedom Act, which has forced utility monopolies to compete with independent power producers to provide cheaper and cleaner energy.

In 2021, my legislative colleagues selected me to chair the Senate-House joint committee on energy-market reforms, and I’ve spent countless hours meeting with all actors in the space. What I learned during that deep dive forms the basis for the comprehensive energy bill that will be considered by the Legislature during the 2025 session. 

In 2024 I authored a joint resolution supporting the state Commerce Department’s application for a federal grant to upgrade our transmission and distribution lines into a “smart grid,” and the state Commerce Secretary acknowledged that my legislation was as a reason why a $45 million grant was secured. 

More recently, I have been working with officials at Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy, the co-owners of the partially completed nuclear reactors at the VC Summer site in Fairfield County, on developing an RFP to solicit bids from private companies to complete the reactors at their risk and cost.