S.867, the Data Center Development Act, packs a lot into one bill.
Read it with this core question.
Does this bill preserve communities’ ability to stop harm in real time?
The Declaration
The bill begins by outlining the structure of an entirely new framework, including a dedicated statutory chapter for data centers, a new state office, an advisory committee, a statewide siting permit, a formal approval process, and ongoing reporting requirements.
An entire governing ecosystem around data centers. Simply put, this bill grows government power and will be expensive.
SECTION 2. The General Assembly finds that: (1) Data centers represent critical infrastructure for the modern digital economy and provide significant economic benefits to South Carolina through substantial capital investment, high-quality job creation, tax revenue generation, and support of essential digital services.
How many permanent jobs do data centers actually create once construction ends? How much land, electricity, and water do they require relative to that employment?
(2) South Carolina seeks to be a nationally competitive location for data center development by providing regulatory certainty, efficient permitting processes, and clear operational standards.
Who benefits most from regulatory certainty and faster permitting?
(Tip One: Power and Action Words like “regulatory certainty” and “efficient” tend to mask streamlined industry approvals (e.g., auto-approval if delayed, expedited reviews), while Ambiguous Words like “reasonable” create subjective standards left to agencies to clarify.)
Definitions
Section 49-35-10: Key terms such as “data center,” “data center operator,” “infrastructure adequacy,” and “operational efficiency standards” are broadly defined.
Broad and flexible definitions mean state regulators interpret and define crucial requirements.
(Tip One: Be concerned if you do not clearly understand what is being written into law.)
The Creation of the New Office (Gatekeeper)
Section 49-35-20 (A) There is created the Data Center Development Office (Office) inside the Department of Environmental Services (DES). DES appoints a director.
The Office becomes the central hub for data center activity, handling consultations, permitting, standards, coordination with other agencies, enforcement, and ongoing review of the law.
Section 49-35-20 (E) (1) Alongside the Office sits a Data Center Industry Advisory Committee comprising 10 members from industry, utilities, advocacy organizations, and state agencies.
The committee is industry-heavy (10 members: reps from operators, utilities, etc.), risking capture where “best practices” favor growth over strict protections
(Tip Four WHO: power people include appointees from Governor/Senate/House).
Permits, Timing, and Tiers
Section 49-35-30 (A) A data center may not begin operations within this State unless the data center first receives a permit from the office certifying that the provisions of this chapter have been met.
Section 49-35-30 (2), (3), (4) The approval review process depends on whether a facility is classified as Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3. Smaller facilities are routed through a more streamlined review, while larger facilities trigger broader assessments.
Section 49-35-30 (D) But then there’s a line that says: If the office fails to timely make a permitting decision, then the permit is approved subject to standard conditions.
If the Office misses the 60/90/120-day deadline, the permit auto-approves subject to standard conditions. What are those? Again, left to state regulators to clarify. See section 49-25-40.
(Tip One: Repeat: Be concerned if you do not clearly understand what is being written into law.)
The Subjective Standards
Section 49-35-40 The Office will have the authority to set a range of operational efficiency standards.
Who decides what’s reasonable? Who revisits those standards five or ten years from now?
Water
Section 49-35-40(B) directs the Office to establish water-efficiency standards for all data centers and to measure compliance using water-use effectiveness. The section also allows variances and keeps detailed water-use data confidential.
How much water can a facility ultimately draw? How broadly will variances be used? Whether rising water costs fall on the community? With detailed water-use data kept confidential, how can residents verify whether a data center is complying with water standards?
The Office Helps
Section 49-35-50 The office shall proactively work with data center operators to identify suitable locations for the data centers to operate rather than only review locations identified by data center operators.
So the Office will help.
Not Good. Section 49-35-50 (D) The environmental impact assessment shall disregard minor impacts or speculative concerns.
What are minor impacts? When does a concern stop being speculative and start being material?
Responsible Electricity Consumption
Section 49-35-60 Electricity pricing, contracts, cost allocation, and infrastructure investment fall under the authority of the South Carolina Public Service Commission.
(Tip Four: Who holds the power? (PSC commissioners gain expanded exclusive jurisdiction over a specific industry segment, centralizing decisions away from utilities, locals, or ratepayers directly.))
Section 49-35-60 (F)(1) Contracts for electric service must ensure data center operators bear the fair cost of utility service, including but not limited to: (a) infrastructure costs directly attributable to serving the data center; (b) appropriate allocation of fixed costs and capacity costs; But are not limited to (c) costs of maintaining reliability for existing customers; and (d) reasonable return on utility investments, if applicable.
If residents’ electric bills increase, what process allows them to challenge cost-shifting and get it corrected immediately?
Who decides what counts as a “fair” share of electricity costs, and how can existing customers tell whether they’re protected from picking up the difference?
Section 49-35-60 (H) (1) Data centers may utilize self-generation.
How will the health impacts related to generator emissions, diesel fumes, or prolonged exposure near residential areas be handled?
Local government is present, but limited
Section 49-35-80 (A) (1) Local governments retain full authority over zoning, land use, building codes, and other related matters within the jurisdiction of local governments.
Dilution of local control Section 49-35-80 (A) (1) Local governments shall not have any jurisdiction over electricity consumption, which shall remain the sole responsibility of the Public Service Commission. And Section 49-35-80 (A) (2) Local governments may impose additional, reasonable requirements addressing local concerns through the proper exercise of land use authority. However, local governments cannot impose requirements that are more restrictive than those imposed by this chapter relating to: (a) operational efficiency standards; or (b) state-level infrastructure adequacy determinations. Section 49-35-80 (A) (3) The office shall coordinate with local governments but office permitting decisions shall not be delayed due to local government zoning or land use processes.
Local involvement exists, but only within boundaries already set by the state.
Noise
Section 49-35-90 (A) Data centers shall implement reasonable measures to minimize noise, vibration, and light impacts on surrounding communities.
What happens when residents experience constant disruption, but the measures taken are deemed “reasonable” by the Office?
Information the Public Can and Can’t See
Section 49-35-100 (A) The office may require confidential information for review purposes but shall not publicly disclose confidential information except as required by law, including detailed operational data.
If a community suspects violations based on vague operational data, how easy is it to verify compliance without access to the underlying data?
A Good Stopping Point
Taken as a whole, this bill builds a costly permanent state-level system for approving and managing data center development. Basically, to normalize data centers in SC.
(Tip Two: government expansion without sunset, forever open to growth and amendments.)
Which brings things back to that original question:
When data centers cause harm, will the community be able to mitigate the harm as quickly as possible?
Bonus question: If residents rally, attend meetings, and convince their local government to reject or downzone a data center site, does S.867 let the community win, or does the Office approve the site despite local opposition, forcing the project forward anyway?
CTA:
Before rushing to pass an entirely new framework, it’s reasonable to ask whether existing law is doing what it was intended to do and if not, why those issues aren’t being addressed there first.
If S.867 allows more data centers in, that alone should give us pause, especially when the state is already struggling to meet existing power and infrastructure demands.
Citizens do not need another layer of government to navigate just to have legitimate concerns addressed.
Legislators should vote NO on this bill unless it clearly preserves people’s rights to protect themselves from harm.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute legal or professional advice. ConservaTruth assumes no liability for any actions taken based on this content. Readers are encouraged to review the bill text themselves. Read more.
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