Office of Regulatory Staff members have a right to be annoyed with the Public Disservice Commission.

The rest of us have a right to be at the least incensed.

These highly-paid commissioners have gone against the research and recommendations of ORS time after time.

The commissioners are paid almost $108,000 a year and repeatedly approve rate hikes, high profits and other ratepayer costs for SCE&G and Carolina Water, two of the most despised companies South Carolina.

High rates may mean little to them, but they mean a lot to thousands of struggling ratepayers, many of them elderly widows living on tiny fixed incomes.

The commissioners seem never to have seen a rate increase they did not like. They ignore that many SCE&G and CWS ratepayers have nothing like the $108,000 a year the taxpayers pony up for them.

We hear from many of these suffering ratepayers at the Chronicle. They do not know who else to turn to. They call and ask what we or they can do to stop this punishment.

They ask what lawmakers who created this legal raid in their small bank accounts are going to do about it.

They ask if we think the legislature will really do anything about it, knowing the money SCE&G and CWS give to fatten lawmakers’ bank accounts.

We suggest they call their individual lawmakers, write them and send us a copy of their letters. We will publish them.

Regulated monopolies have not worked well in our state. The system has rewarded the regulators, lawmakers and service providers. It has taken advantage of the people its was designed to serve. It is time we deregulated the system as they have done successfully in Texas and other states.

This will introduce competition, drive down rates and give ratepayers a choice in who they buy any service from.

If a huge state like Texas can deregulate its system, tiny South Carolina can do it, too.

JerryBellune@yahoo.com

If a huge state like Texas can deregulate its system, tiny South Carolina can, too.