From rising sea levels to more intense storms, South Carolina’s coastal communities will be on the front lines of climate change for decades to come. Currently, the federal government has secured more than $62.4 million in grants to help the state prepare for its future.
The funding will be distributed as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. The legislation would distribute about $1.2 trillion across the United States over the next few years, according to the White House. A significant portion of that package is aimed at climate resilience and clean energy.
Congressman James Clyburn said huge investments are needed to protect the country from a rapidly changing climate. Mr. Clyburn served as floor leader during negotiations on the infrastructure bill and played a major role in its enactment.
“Charleston is a very unique city,” Clyburn told reporters at a Jan. 3 news conference. “But there’s something that’s not unique about Charleston, and that’s what’s happening to our environment and what we have to do to protect it.”
Among other local initiatives funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, conservation organizations received $6.7 million in grants to support living shoreline projects and coastal resiliency. Joy Brown, director of the Conservancy’s Resilient Communities Program, said living shorelines offer a more natural way to stabilize erosion, as opposed to methods like sea walls and retaining walls. An environmentally friendly approach can also help encourage the growth of native plants.
“If we can shift to more of this natural way of stabilizing coastlines, we will have healthier wetland edges as sea levels rise,” she said.
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U.S. Representative James Clyburn addresses reporters during a press conference in Charleston, January 3, 2024.Jonah Chester/Staff
Sea levels near Charleston are projected to rise about 1 foot by 2050. Typically, South Carolina’s wetlands move inland to accommodate rising sea levels. But as the state’s coastal communities grow, those shifting wetlands can become wedged between the ocean and man-made infrastructure. Caught between the proverbial rock and a literal hard place, their existence is being squeezed, potentially destroying diverse ecosystems and resources critical to the state’s fisheries.
“The money is in the swamp. The more swamp there is, the better off we are,” Brown said.
The conservancy’s federal grant will support the construction of South Carolina’s largest Oyster Castle living shoreline in Beaufort, as well as other living shorelines in underserved communities across the state. We plan to accelerate the project. It will also support the development of a 10-year plan to improve coastal resilience with a focus on living coastlines. Brown said the first phase of that work should begin this spring.
Faith Rivers James, executive director of the Coastal Conservation League, told reporters on Jan. 3 that the organization has received $1 million from the federal government to help establish a living shoreline near Parris Island in Beaufort County. He said he also received a subsidy.
But federal funds aren’t just for conservation and restoration.
More than $100 million from the Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Control Act, another large federal program, will be spent to support local and statewide electric vehicle infrastructure, according to John Tynan, president of South Carolina Conservative Voters. It is said that He said the state has boosted private and public investment in electric vehicles in recent years, adding 14,000 new clean energy jobs. This includes Redwood Materials, a new facility in Berkeley County that aims to create 1,500 new jobs, the largest economic development project in South Carolina history.
Meanwhile, in Dorchester County, Bosch is investing $260 million to start producing electric motors, creating about 350 jobs.
“All of this was made possible by the Inflation Control Act and the bipartisan Infrastructure Act,” Tynan said. “This is just a taste of what’s to come, as only a small portion of the funding under these bills has begun to flow.”
Also in Charleston, about $7 million in federal aid will be used to support construction of the Lowcountry Lowline, a 1.7-mile linear park planned under the Interstate 26 overpass on the Peninsula. Ta. Additionally, $70 million is set aside for energy efficiency and grid resiliency efforts.