McMaster to tap ex-SC lawmaker, US attorney Peter McCoy to chair Santee Cooper board
Gov. Henry McMaster will nominate former South Carolina lawmaker and United States Attorney Peter McCoy to chair the board of Santee Cooper, the state’s embattled public utility under scrutiny since it pulled the plug on a debt-saddled, unfinished nuclear construction project in Fairfield County, The State has learned.
McCoy’s name was the only one floated in calls to state senators as the potential next chairman of the state-owned utility, five sources familiar with the calls from the governor’s office told The State on Tuesday. The State first reported McCoy’s nomination.
McMaster appoints the chairman and other members of the utility’s board with the consent of the state Senate.
On Wednesday, McMaster said McCoy is highly qualified for the job and said he has received positive feedback from lawmakers.
McMaster said he plans to nominate McCoy as soon as his nominating papers are ready, in “just a few days.”
“But he’s ready to go and I think the Senate is ready to confirm him,” McMaster said.
McCoy, 42, could not be reached for comment by deadline.
Asked to respond, Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore told The State the utility “stands ready to support any new board member who is confirmed” by the Senate, based on the governor’s recommendation.
Board members earn $10,000 a year and the chairman is paid $24,000 a year.
Each board member also gets a $75 stipend for each meeting they attend.
McCoy, of Charleston, resigned his state House seat and his post chairing the powerful House Judiciary Committee last year after former President Donald Trump tapped him to become the next U.S. attorney of South Carolina. He resigned that seat in February after President Joe Biden took office, a typical move when the opposing party wins the White House.
As the U.S. attorney, McCoy oversaw the federal probe into fraud allegations against leaders of SCANA, the now-defunct parent company of S.C. Electric & Gas. That probe has resulted in two top SCANA ex-officials pleading guilty to criminal conspiracy charges.
As a state House member, McCoy chaired a House panel that investigated the $9 billion nuclear project failure.
In past years, Santee Cooper’s board chairmen have become targets of the Legislature and the governor himself.
With the current absence of a permanent board chair, Dan Ray, the board’s first vice chairman, serves as the acting chairman of the utility’s board of directors.
But, last year, upset over Santee Cooper’s issuance of some $638 million in debt, two of the Senate’s top Republican members called on the utility’s leaders, including Ray, to step down.
In November of last year, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said Santee Cooper “desperately needs a house cleaning. The entire board. The entire management team. All of them. Then use a MiB Neuralyzer on anyone who’s left,” he said, referring to a memory swiping device used in the science fiction comedy Men in Black.
Powerful Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman said then that Ray’s resignation would be the “best thing that could ever happen to Santee Cooper.”
The utility vigorously defended its actions.
In 2017, former board chairman Leighton Lord resigned after a three-week fight with the governor, who accused the Columbia attorney of failing to cooperate with his office by “providing the information necessary to resolve this crisis.”
If confirmed to head Santee Cooper’s board, McCoy would help oversee a giant of a state agency, which provides electricity to roughly 2 million direct and indirect residential and commercial customers in South Carolina’s coastal territories, bringing in billions of dollars a year.
McCoy also would be thrown into the middle of an embattled agency that the Legislature is in the throes of deciding whether to allow it to reform itself, or sell it to another utility company, such as Florida-based NextEra Energy.
Senators said Tuesday that McCoy is perfectly positioned to take on the role.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, one of several Republican senators to get a call from the governor, told The State on Wednesday that McCoy is a good pick, who has a “deeper understanding about Santee Cooper’s issues than a typical attorney would have.”
Massey also said he is not bothered by McCoy’s absence of a utility business background.
Typically that would bother Massey, he said, but in this case McCoy “was probably more involved than anybody on the House side in investigating V.C. Summer and looking under the hood at both SCANA and Santee Cooper. Peter understands that the issues at Santee Cooper are deeper than just V.C. Summer. And he understands what a lotof those issues are. That gives me more comfort.”
State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said McCoy, who worked with Davis a few years ago drafting energy-related legislation, should easily win approval by the Senate, because McCoy has the vision for what South Carolina’s energy production should look like.
“I think he’s the perfect candidate,” Davis said.
Republican state Sen. Larry Grooms, who Berkeley County district includes Santee Cooper’s headquarters, agreed.
“The governor made an excellent choice in Peter McCoy,” Grooms said. “Having someone with knowledge of South Carolina’s electrical utility business is extremely important, and Peter certainly has that.”
McCoy also is well respected by the General Assembly, offering credibility, Grooms said. That advantage, along with McCoy’s involvement in the V.C. Summer hearings and work as the U.S. attorney overseeing nuclear-related convictions, gives McCoy “tremendous insight” into how Santee Cooper works, Grooms said.
“He knows the good, the bad and the ugly of Santee Cooper.”
Reporter Joseph Bustos contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 4:03 PM.
