Hoping to see another lower electric bill? SC power customers are in luck

A federal appeals court Friday denied SCE&G’s motion to block a more than $22-a-month cut to its average customer’s electric bill.

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied SCE&G’s request for an injunction to halt those rate cuts and its request for an expedited appeal.

But the court also rejected a request from attorneys representing S.C. lawmakers to dismiss SCE&G’s appeal. They had argued the court lacks jurisdiction. Instead, the court ruled that appeal can go forward, unexpedited.

The ruling means the rate cuts will stay in place until the S.C. Public Service Commission rules on SCE&G’s longer-term rates later this fall, said attorney Matthew Richardson, who is representing S.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman, R-Leatherman, in the lawsuit.

Last month, SCE&G asked the appeals court for an emergency order to stay a temporary 15-percent rate cut. That rate cut went into effect Aug. 7 after the utility lost a lower court ruling, which it is appealing.

A U.S. District Court judge this summer allowed the temporary cut to SCE&G’s electric rates to take effect, scoring a victory for S.C. lawmakers and SCE&G’s 727,000-plus S.C. electric customers.

The S.C. General Assembly approved the rate cut after SCE&G abandoned its $9 billion, decade-long effort to build two new nuclear reactors at Fairfield County’s V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, a project that SCE&G’s customers have paid more than $2 billion to finance.

After the V.C. Summer project collapsed, SCE&G parent SCANA agreed to sell itself to Richmond-based Dominion Energy. However, that deal is contingent on SCE&G’s rates not being cut drastically.