Click here to view our Newsletter Archive »
Businesses see employment upside with carbon cap
WASHINGTON — One question was on everyone's mind during hearings this week on a new U.S. energy policy: What would it do to the country's jobs and the American lifestyle?
June 26, 2009 | Read More
EPA declares fossil fuel emissions a health threat
WASHINGTON — Capping years of work by U.S. government scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday declared that the heating of Earth's climate from fossil fuel use threatens human health and the environment.
June 26, 2009 | Read More
Major provisions of House climate and energy bill
Highlights of climate bill approved passed by the House:
June 26, 2009 | Read More
Mercury warnings affect 28 waterways
State health officials are warning people not to eat a single bite of certain kinds of fish in 28 South Carolina waterways because of mercury and other kinds of contamination, a new roster shows.
June 24, 2009 | Read More
Clean energy expands in S.C.
South Carolina is growing its clean energy economy faster than the U.S. average, a national study found.
June 12, 2009 | Read More
S.C. clean energy jobs grew 36%
Jobs in South Carolina’s clean energy economy grew more than 16 times faster than overall jobs between 1998 and 2007, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
June 10, 2009 | Read More
Judge orders PCB parties into court
ANDERSON – U.S. District Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr. on Tuesday ordered Schlumberger Technology Corp. and government agencies back into his courtroom to account for their progress on removing PCB-contaminated sediment and two dams on the Twelve Mile River.
June 10, 2009 | Read More
Exclusive: Company fined for Saluda spill Settlement between Alpine Utilities, state covers sewage leak
Alpine Utilities was fined $25,000 and spent $160,000 to improve its sewer plant in St. Andrews after an equipment breakdown led to a spill into the lower Saluda River last summer.
June 2, 2009 | Read More
New dam revives landmark pond
A local Batesburg-Leesville landmark has a new lease on life, thanks to a rebuilt dam.
June 2, 2009 | Read More
Sanford says he won't appeal stimulus decision
Gov. Mark Sanford said he will not put the state in a protracted legal fight over control of $700 million in federal stimulus money on the same day the governor received a legal setback in federal court.
June 2, 2009 | Read More
Study touts role of resources: Embattled DNR quick to underline economic impact of nature, recreation
South Carolina’s natural resources — its beaches, forests and lakes — contribute $30 billion a year to the state’s economy and support 230,000 jobs, according to a study conducted by the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business.
May 28, 2009 | Read More
Panel dumps ban on big landfills
National waste corporations scored an important victory Wednesday that critics said could reopen the door for new mega-landfills and out-of-state garbage in South Carolina.
May 14, 2009 | Read More
Landfill rules must protect S.C.
South Carolina needs substantial changes in its landfill rules to keep the
state from becoming the country's garbage dump.
May 6, 2009 | Read More
The true cost of coal
Does South Carolina really need the proposed Santee Cooper coal-fired power plant? In thinking that through, we should question the supposed need for the plant and its full range of costs.
May 3, 2009 | Read More
Protect water for S.C. purpose
Lawmakers broke a logjam last week on a bill that would protect the long-term viability of South Carolina's lakes and rivers and strengthen the state's efforts to stake out its claim to water in rivers shared with North Carolina and Georgia.
May 1, 2009 | Read More
Lawmakers speak out against mountaintop mining
Some South Carolina legislators are speaking out against mountaintop coal mining.
April 30, 2009 | Read More
Lung Association grades county 'F'
Charleston County received a failing grade for ozone air pollution in a report released Wednesday by the American Lung Association, but a state official said the air quality here meets national standards.
April 30, 2009 | Read More
'Renewable' energy, not coal
Since Santee Cooper announced its plans to build a new coal- burning electricity station in Kingsburg, public opposition has been powerful and unrelenting, for real and legitimate reasons.
April 29, 2009 | Read More
PeeDee coal plant cost vastly underestimated, study says.
Santee Cooper may have low-balled construction and other costs of its Pee Dee coal plant project by hundreds of millions of dollars, a strategy that poses “significant financial risks to ratepayers,” a Massachusetts energy consultant says in a new study.
April 22, 2009 | Read More
Saving the Congaree Swamp, then and now
Engaged citizens left columbia a treasured legacy that still needs protection.
April 21, 2009 | Read More
Landfills raise concerns
Pollution prompts calls for operators to help provide clean water
April 13, 2009 | Read More
Conservation Voters meet to discuss endangered waterway
With the Saluda River recently ranked as the sixth most endangered in the
country and Lake Greenwood threatened by sediment and phosphorus,
Conservation Voters of South Carolina arrived in Greenwood on Thursday to
suggest an avenue to act.
April 9, 2009 | Read More
Local landfills might expand as state eyes mega-dumps ban
A municipal waste landfill in Northeast Richland County could more than double in size if Waste Management Inc. gets its way. A smaller landfill next door specializing in construction debris also wants to increase its capacity.
April 8, 2009 | Read More
SC conservationists test fishermen for mercury
Conservation groups opposed to a proposed coal-fired power plant that would sit along the banks of a South Carolina river began snipping hair samples from area fishermen Wednesday to test for mercury poisoning.
April 8, 2009 | Read More
Saluda river in peril, group declares
The Saluda River’s high levels of phosphorus and sediment earned it a spot on a list of the country’s most endangered rivers of 2009, marking the third time a South Carolina waterway has made the list in the past five years.
April 7, 2009 | Read More
Senate oks 2-year mega-landfills ban
Under pressure to limit the flow of trash into South Carolina, the Senate approved a temporary ban Tuesday on huge new landfills that cater to out-of-state waste.
April 1, 2009 | Read More
Water bill crucial to court fight with NC
South Carolina’s pending U.S. Supreme Court case against North Carolina over water withdrawal from the Catawba River has highlighted water-rights disputes between parched states in the Southeast.
March 24, 2009 | Read More
Panel rejects DHEC changes
Pollution concerns fail to convince senators to put agency under governor’s control.
March 13, 2009 | Read More
Keep legislators from pulling strings at DHEC
It appears that the legislator whose complaint to the Department of Health and Environmental Control led to a well-respected investigator being called off an illegal dumping case and demoted was Sen. Jake Knotts.
March 4, 2009 | Read More
We can help protect environment without paying huge price tag
In a time when headlines carry ominous warnings about the current economic outlook, it is reassuring to remind ourselves that not all progress carries a high price tag.
March 1, 2009 | Read More
Builders’ alternative won’t protect water
The Midlands has been aggressively promoting its riverfront even as it confronts some unpleasant facts about the condition of its water resources.
February 24, 2009 | Read More
Sanford opposes $1.25 billion coal-fired power plant
Gov. Mark Sanford said he's opposed to Santee Cooper's plan to build a $1.25 billion coal-fired power plant along the Great Pee Dee River.
February 11, 2009 | Read More
Pee Dee Project: DNR opposes coal-fired plant
The head of the state Department of Natural Resources has denounced Santee Cooper’s proposed $2 billion coal-fired plant in Florence County.
February 11, 2009 | Read More
Debating the Future of Energy in South Carolina
Critics Assail Legislative Policy Report
February 11, 2009 | Read More
S.C. must kick costly coal habit
Last week's trek by South Carolina's Public Utilities Review Committee (PURC) to Washington, D.C., was a disappointing performance.
February 11, 2009 | Read More
South Carolina urged to regulate water withdrawals from rivers
Recurring droughts, interstate conflicts over water and a local population expected to resume its rapid growth in the future have some officials urging South Carolina to better manage its water resources now.
February 2, 2009 | Read More
The Green 15
Leading S.C. conservationists who are working to keep the state green. Some have fought for years for tighter pollution control laws to protect swamps, forests, mountains and farmland from destruction.
November 17, 2008 | Read More
2008 Scorecard
Conservation Voters of South Carolina, the nonpartisan accountability arm of the state's conservation community, released its third Scorecard evaluating state legislators on issues relating to clean air, clean water and land protection.
September 18, 2008 | Read More
Group has ideas on smart growth
Smart growth is a hot topic in Georgetown County, and Coast Matters, a project of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina, has some ideas on how to be smart about growth.
August 8, 2008 | Read More
Consummate conservationist: Longtime activist uses political skills to keep issues on legislative agendas
For Ann Timberlake, a recent campaign to close a nuclear waste dump in South Carolina was like preserving the Congaree Swamp three decades ago.
April 29, 2007 | Read More
