Mid-Carolina Electric and 19 other co-ops are fighting back over nuclear costs.
They are suing taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper to halt any charges to their member owners for its $4 billion nuclear debt.
That debt comes from the $9 billion Lexington County-based SC Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper’s $4 billion wasted on a failed Fairfield County nuclear fiasco.
Mid-Carolina in Lexington County and the state’s other co-ops fear Santee Cooper will try to recover $4 billion from their members.
That could cost their members thousands of dollars in higher electricity bills over the next 40 years.
In a 38-page filing, The State newspaper reported the co-ops claim Santee Cooper lied about problems with skyrocketing construction costs and long delays.
The co-ops say Santee Cooper violated their contract by hiding information about the project’s flaws. 
Santee Cooper claims it was SCE&G’s victim as 45% minority owner and was powerless against its majority partner’s management.
Co-op attorney Frank Ellerbe wrote in the filing that Santee Cooper emails and letters “tell the indisputable story of a project beset almost from the beginning with myriad fundamental, entrenched problems that led inexorably to major delays and cost overruns. Yet, it was a story Santee Cooper kept largely to itself.”
Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore denied this and said the co-ops were “kept aware of the project’s status throughout.”