Thursday letters: We need answers before rate hike

Before the Public Service Commission approves SCE&G’s latest request for a rate increase, it should get answers to these questions:

1. Why has it allowed SCE&G to sell insurance covering sewer-line repairs, a clear example of mission creep? Are SCE&G’s customers paying for the operating costs of this insurance program and the superfluous employees operating it? If SCE&G wants to sell insurance, shouldn’t SCANA spin off this insurance program and all associated costs as a non-regulated subsidiary?

2. In 2014, SCE&G’s residential electric customers accounted for 45 percent of electric sales and 50 percent of the margin while industrial customers accounted for 18 percent of electric sales but only 14 percent of margin. Why are residential customers subsidizing the rates of some of America’s richest industrial corporations?

3. Why do recent SCE&G television commercials give the impression it is committed to solar power when a table in SCANA’s 2014 annual report projects that none of SCE&G’s electricity will be generated by solar power in the years 2015-2017?

4. Why is SCE&G constructing two nuclear reactors at a cost of about $5 million per megawatt when Duke Power recently announced that a $750 million, 650-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant near Asheville will only cost about $1.2 million per megawatt to construct. Isn’t it obvious that SC&G isn’t constructing these reactors to generate affordable electricity but to maximize profits, a stated SCANA corporate goal?

Columbia

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 7:08 PM.