Lawmakers want probe of NextEra Energy

Should SC sell Santee Cooper to Florida energy giant?

Posted 1/2/21

SC Sen. Dick Harpootlian is not opposed to selling the deeply-indebted Santee Cooper electric utility.

He wants an investigation of leading prospective buyer NextEra of Florida.

The senator …

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Lawmakers want probe of NextEra Energy

Should SC sell Santee Cooper to Florida energy giant?

Posted

SC Sen. Dick Harpootlian is not opposed to selling the deeply-indebted Santee Cooper electric utility.
He wants an investigation of leading prospective buyer NextEra of Florida.
The senator is a member of a Senate subcommittee that has voted unanimously to investigate NextEra.
The energy giant wants to buy Santee Cooper, the taxpayer-owned utility that provides power to Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative members in Lexington County.
If NextEra does not provide the information in 15 days, senators will seek subpoena power, said Harpootlian who represents the Irmo-St. Andrews area.
Harpootlian, a Democrat, is joined by Republican Sens. Stephen Goldfinch of Georgetown and Luke Rankin of Horry County in  seeking the investigation.
The bipartisan 7 senators will sent NextEra a letter requesting details about lobbying and campaign contributions to state lawmakers. 
15 days to reply should be ample time, senators said,  because NextEra has a team of lawyers working to acquire Santee Cooper.
“I’m not committed to selling it,” Harpootlian told the Chronicle.“I want to know what I’m voting on.” 
NextEra, an investor-owned holding company, owns US utilities with $19 billion a year in revenue.
In 2019, Santee Cooper had $1.6 billion in revenues from about 200,000 customers including 20 cooperatives and large businesses. 
Santee Cooper has been criticized for a failed $10 billion nuclear project with its former partner, Lexington County-based SCANA, now owned by Dominion Energy.
2 top SCANA executive have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud in the state’s largest business failure that cost ratepayers $2.2 billion.
Federal investigators are reportedly preparing charges against other SCANA and Santee Cooper officials and their lawyers and lobbyists.
In a letter, Harpootlian wrote that federal investigators are looking into into NextEra efforts to acquire a Jacksonville, FL, utility. 
“It is important we learn all we can about the federal investigation,” he wrote.
 

SCANA, Nextera, Dick, Harpootlian, senators

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