Lawmakers wisely say no

Posted 3/18/20

Bless their little hearts, our state lawmakers occasionally get it right.

They rejected 3 proposals for which they paid experts $9.2 million – with good cause.

The House Ad-Hoc Santee …

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Lawmakers wisely say no

Posted

Bless their little hearts, our state lawmakers occasionally get it right.
They rejected 3 proposals for which they paid experts $9.2 million – with good cause.
The House Ad-Hoc Santee Cooper Committee voted unanimously to turn down all 3 bids for Santee Cooper.
Their smartest move was to reject NextEra Energy’s $15.9 billion offer to buy taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper but not its $8 billion debt. 
Had they accepted it, Santee Cooper’s customers including member-owners of Lexington County’s Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative would have been stuck with the debt.
NextEra Energy wants to bypass regulators to charge customers $2.3 billion on new power plants even if those projects are never built or operated. 
Sound like Santee Cooper’s and SC Electric & Gas’s abandoned nuclear power plant?
NextEra’s offer is like the Base Load Review Act, the controversial law that let SCE&G ratepayers more than $2 billion for the abandoned nuclear reactors.
Their other options were:
• Lexington County-based Dominion Energy’s offer to manage Santee Cooper. Do we want out-of-state owned Dominion with a reputation for hardball with their ratepayers and lawmakers controlling this much of our state’s power grid?
• Santee Cooper board’s own internal reform plan. These are the good ol’ boys who screwed up and now want to dump $8 billion in debt on ratepayers and taxpayers of the state.
The House decided instead to:
• Name a negotiator to reach a better deal with NextEra.
• Come up with their own  Santee Cooper reform plan.
We wish them well.
Lawmakers had hoped they could come up with a deal that would not stick ratepayers with the $8 billion debt.
We hope our lawmakers can reach the best deal for state taxpayers and ratepayers.
Keep your fingers crossed.
If you agree with us, please let your legislators know. If you disagree, please let us know at JerryBellune@yahoo.com .

opinion, lawmakers, law

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