SC AG blasts Dominion for trying to recoup VC Summer legal costs from Santee Cooper

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has intervened in a bitter dispute between two of the state’s largest power companies, blasting Virginia-based Dominion Energy’s effort to try to recoup its legal costs in a recent legal action — possibly up to $1 billion — from Santee Cooper.

“How can Dominion now reasonably seek to stick some two million of Santee Cooper’s ratepayers, located in all 46 counties, with 45 percent of the cost of your multi-billion dollar purchase of SCE&G,” Wilson wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Dominion’s top lawyer.

In October, Dominion demanded Santee Cooper, a state-owned electric utility headquartered in Moncks Corner, chip in for legal costs Dominion incurred in reaching a $2 billion settlement with customers of SCE&G over that utility’s failed effort to expand the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County. Santee Cooper has not offered to pay.

Wilson’s letter Wednesday is the latest development in that dispute.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper were partners in the failed nuclear venture, together racking up $9 billion in debt before canceling the doomed project in 2017.

Last year, in what is known as the Lightsey case, Dominion settled with SCE&G ratepayers — who were charged higher rates for years as SCE&G oversaw the project’s construction — as part of its purchase of the Cayce-based utility in January 2019.

In an October letter to Santee Cooper, Dominion argued that since Santee Cooper owned 45% of the V.C. Summer expansion project, it should bear 45% of the legal costs SCE&G and Dominion incurred in the Lightsey case.

“Dominion’s demand of Santee Cooper to bear a major portion of the Lightsey settlement is quite troubling,” Wilson responded in his strongly worded Wednesday letter.

Dominion’s demand, coming after Lightsey was settled, is an unfair surprise that raises this question: “How can Dominion now reasonably seek to stick some 2 million of Santee Cooper’s ratepayers, located in all 46 counties, with 45 percent of the cost of your multi-billion dollar purchase of SCE&G?” Wilson wrote.

In his letter, Dominion’s top attorney, Carlos Brown, had strong words about Santee Cooper, asserting that the public utility has been portraying itself as a victim in the nuclear debacle, creating a “false narrative” that it was a minor player with no oversight role in the nuclear project.

Instead, Brown wrote, “Santee Cooper was an active partner to SCE&G in the management of the project and participated in every phase of the construction.”

The State newspaper learned about the letters and requested the Attorney General’s Office for copies.

In his letter, Wilson argued that Dominion agreed to the settlement without consulting Santee Cooper and therefore it is not legal to try to make Santee Cooper pay for nearly half of it.

Wilson also made the case that the original 2011 V.C. Summer construction contract, in which SCE&G and Santee Cooper agreed to share all costs associated with the project, no longer matters “as that project ended in utter failure.”

The dispute is likely not to end soon. In its October letter to Santee Cooper, Dominion indicated it will seek to make Santee Cooper pay costs in other legal actions involving the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project.

Santee Cooper had no immediate comment.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Dominion gave The State newspaper a statement, indicating that Brown’s letter from October “was written to encourage Santee Cooper to collaborate with Dominion Energy to resolve Santee’s customer claims that were brought against both companies, and to remind Santee that Dominion had not sought contribution from Santee for the Lightsey customer case in a showing of good faith, notwithstanding contractual rights that entitled it to do so.”

The statement continued: “It is our hope that we can resolve Santee’s customers claims in a timely manner so that both companies can return their full focus to delivering safe, reliable and affordable energy to their customers.”

The failure of the nuclear project has spawned numerous lawsuits and legal actions in state and federal civil court. Ongoing criminal investigations are taking place by federal authorities.

Dominion, a $13 billion publicly traded energy company, is doing well these days. Its stock price has risen from the low $60 range in June 2018 to nearly $83 per share Wednesday. It raised its dividend in December.