Jim Rex

Environment and Conservation

• Jim has spent his adult life working on issues to protect South Carolina's natural resources for future generations.
• Former chair and founder of Clean Water South Carolina, an organization formed to protect South Carolina's Catawba River when the city of Charlotte, NC attempted to build a waste water treatment facility in South Carolina.
• Former member of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation Board of Directors, an organization dedicated to making conservation one of the state's top policy priorities.
• Former chair of the Palmetto Trail, the state's largest hiking project, stretching from the mountains to the sea.
• Founding member of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina Board of Directors, a statewide advocacy organization for conservation groups and individuals.
• Served for more than two years as a volunteer stakeholder representative for South Carolina in negotiations with Duke Power on the relicensing of Duke's hydroelectric dams through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and was instrumental in helping preserve thousands of acres and miles of shoreline as a part of the eventual stakeholder agreement.
  
• While Vice President for Advancement at the University of South Carolina, initiated and led efforts to acquire and preserve 2000-acre Prince George, a sensitive series of wetlands stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Waccamaw River in Georgetown County. Prince George is now preserved in perpetuity for wildlife education and research.  In addition, managed the acquisition of and research expansion on Pritchard's Island, a barrier island now fully protected from development near Fripp Island, SC.
• As State Superintendent of Education, has forged a first-in-the-nation partnership with the state Department of Natural Resources to create magnet schools that will help expose South Carolina's youth to the wonders of the outdoor world.  Extracurricular choices include hunting, fishing, kayaking, and hiking.  There are currently two such schools in operation with the project set to expand to four in 2010.  In addition, has made South Carolina one of the first states in the nation to test-drive hybrid school buses to replace diesel-only models.  Finally, has launched a pilot project in five South Carolina school districts, to get students ready for jobs in the emerging field of alternative energy. The new GreenSTEM initiative is an innovative high school course focused on green technologies. It combines science, technology, engineering and mathematics teaching with hands-on student projects using wind energy, solar power and fuel cells, among other resources.
• An avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman himself, Jim and his wife Sue live on Lake Wateree, where they own and manage a farm as natural habitat for wildlife.  Nearly a quarter of their acreage is in a permanent conservation easement that protects it forever from any development.
  

In his own words.

"The next Governor of South Carolina must understand how essential it is to both preserve and enhance our natural resources. Our economic vitality need not be at the expense of our environment and our quality of life.  We can have both - a clean and green state that pays livable wages to healthy citizens who live in a natural environment that is the envy of our neighbors. 

In this new internationally competitive and increasingly complex world, the 'winners' will be the states and nations that integrate effectively what I call the 'Three E's' – economy, education, and environment.  If we commit to getting these three things right, everything else will begin to work for our state and our future."