Data Centers: Your Water & Your Right To Know

  You turn on the tap and you don't think twice. The water's there—for your family, your kids' baths, your garden, your morning coffee. But data centers are arriving across South Carolina at extraordinary scale. They can consume enormous amounts of water and electricity, require massive new infrastructure, and affect the communities where they're built.

 One mid-size facility can use 300,000 gallons of water a day—as much as 1,000 households.

And too often, South Carolinians are having to go to court just to make their government follow the rules and let them see what's happening.

In Spartanburg County, citizens are now in court alleging that an almost $3 billion data center was classified as a “minor” development, avoiding the public Planning Commission review required for major developments. Another proceeding challenges whether construction of its proposed 450-megawatt power plant began without the public review and approval required by state law.

In Dorchester County, a citizen had to sue seeking information about how much water a data center would use after the information was claimed to be a trade secret.

THAT IS YOUR WATER—NOT THEIRS.

Why should ordinary South Carolinians have to hire lawyers and sue their own government just to make public government public?

SO WHAT IS MY ROLE AS YOUR ATTORNEY GENERAL?

It begins with transparency and who’s watching out for you while the deals get made.

The Attorney General doesn’t issue water permits or rezone land. That’s not the office’s job, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But the Attorney General is The People’s Attorney and a protector of the public interest. Companies have lawyers protecting their interests. Government agencies have lawyers protecting theirs. 

As your Attorney General, I will protect YOURS. 

And when South Carolina's natural resources are threatened, I'll protect those too. 

I answer to no corporation, no utility, no industry, and no political donor. 

I answer only to YOU and The Rule of Law.

Open government is the law. 

Citizens should not have to spend their own money and sue their own government just to learn what is being done with their water.

When government claims information about the use of a public resource can be hidden as somebody else’s “trade secret,” I will ask a very simple question:

What does The Rule of Law require—and who is protecting YOUR right to know?

Your money matters too.

Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and require substantial infrastructure. 

When special arrangements, incentives, or infrastructure costs shift the financial burden onto ordinary ratepayers or taxpayers, as your Attorney General I will follow the money and protect the public interest.

That’s work I know. Before I ever became a lawyer, I worked at Arthur Andersen reconstructing the books and records of failed savings-and-loans for the federal government—tracing where the money really went. For thirty years since, I've used that same kind of financial and systems analysis in complex litigation. 

Following the money and holding powerful interests accountable isn't a talking point for me. It's what I've done my entire legal career—holding powerful corporate interests, and government itself, accountable for their harms.

And if someone entrusted with public power criminally abuses that power—through corruption, self-dealing, or other conduct within the jurisdiction of the State Grand Jury—the Attorney General has substantial investigative and prosecutorial authority.

Investigate it. Follow the evidence. Prosecute it where the evidence warrants.

MY POSITION IS CLEAR:

Economic development choices, Home Rule, and open government are not competing values. 

The Rule of Law defines them and protects them all.

ENOUGH WITH THE SECRECY.

Protect your water. Protect your wallet. 

South Carolinians should know what commitments their government is making with public resources. 

And if someone criminally abuses public power, hold them accountable. 

That's the Rule of Law, and that's what I'll do for you.

— Richard