Convenience stores understand better than most what it’s like to operate on razor-thin margins. Every penny counts. To keep our costs affordable for consumers, we need to save money wherever possible. One key way to increase savings is on the electricity bill — especially in South Carolina, where the average household spends more on their electric bills than any other state.

In our stores in California and Nevada, we lowered our electricity bills by installing solar panels, which has allowed us to pass some of those savings on to our customers there. But here in South Carolina, outdated policies and bureaucratic red tape make going solar nearly impossible.

In the most expensive energy state in the nation, that is unacceptable. If a lower-cost energy option exists, businesses deserve the freedom to choose it.

It is hard to overstate the importance of stable, affordable electricity for a small business. Even when we closely manage our energy consumption, one unexpectedly high energy bill can have serious ramifications. It can force us to raise prices on products, which can push consumers to other stores and make us less competitive.

In South Carolina, though, those high bills are the norm — in fact, “per capita retail electricity sales in South Carolina are among the highest in the nation,” according to a 2018 report from the Energy Information Administration.

Read more at Energy News Network