If a huge state like Texas can deregulate utilities, tiny SC can do it, too.”

Did you think the Public Disservice Commissioners were doofuses? Gullible crackers who could be easily bamboozled by every utility they are supposed to regulate?
No, that’s not the case. 
At least 4 of them have been jet-setting as far as Japan and China to keep up to date on the latest in utility regulation.
Surely they wanted to be aware of the nefarious ploys some utilities may use to pick their ratepayers’ pockets. 
Commissioners John “Butch” Howard, Swain Whitfield, O’Neal Hamilton and chairman Randy Randall accepted more than $90,000 in trips and meals paid in part by utility trade groups. Several have ties to those the PSC regulates.
And 2 commissioners expected to leave the PSC when their terms expire June 30 plan to take 1 or more out-of-state trips before then, Rick Brundrett of the SC Policy Council reported in the Chronicle last week.
Commissioners are well paid for this. Lawmakers raised their pay to $132,071 annually and the chairman to $133,982.
Lawmakers elect the 7 commissioners nominated by legislatively-controlled Public Utilities Review Committee.
This way lawmakers exert control over the regulation of utilities such as Dominion Energy and Blue Granite Water in Lexington County.
After the 2017 collapse of a $9 billion nuclear project, the integrity of the PSC has been in question for approving 9 rate hikes that cost SC Electric & Gas ratepayers more than $2 billion.
The increases were made possible by the infamous Base Load Review Act that slick SC Electric & Gas lawyers and lobbyists talked state lawmakers into quietly approving.
If SCE&G could bamboozle the entire legislature into passing such a manipulative law, fooling 7 Public Disservice Commissioners into 9 rate hikes should have been child’s play.
It’s time those lawmakers did away with regulated monopolies. If a huge state like Texas can do it, tiny SC can do it, too.
It just takes political will.
– JerryBellune@yahoo.com