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SC government, utilities should be punished for nuclear fiasco

Top SCE&G officials, CFO Jimmy Addison, Generation and Transmission President Stephen Byrne and CEO Kevin Marsh, testify before the SC Public Service Commission about their decision to abandon the nuclear expansion project after the company hit customers with $1.4 billion in rate increases to finance the effort.
Top SCE&G officials, CFO Jimmy Addison, Generation and Transmission President Stephen Byrne and CEO Kevin Marsh, testify before the SC Public Service Commission about their decision to abandon the nuclear expansion project after the company hit customers with $1.4 billion in rate increases to finance the effort. Tim Dominick tdominick@thestate.com
Columbia, SC

Our governmental leaders are supposed to serve the voters, but when it comes to the failed nuclear plant construction plan by SCE&G and Santee Cooper, they abdicated that servant role and rubber-stamped a bill that now smells like theft, and the customers of the two electric utilities are the crime victims.

Two thoughts sum up this fiasco. The first is the quote, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The second is the phrase caveat emptor, Latin for “let the buyer beware.”

The voters can hand the legislators who passed the law for SCE&G a vote of no confidence. SCE&G (SCANA) and Santee Cooper should be fined and made to pay restitution. Anything less just condones the piracy that has impacted and will continue to impact us.

Jim Mayben

Columbia

This story was originally published August 16, 2017 at 1:55 PM with the headline "SC government, utilities should be punished for nuclear fiasco."

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