Editorials from across South Carolina: government secrecy, SCE&G regulation, viewing the eclipse
Government secrecy
Sometimes school and government officials lose sight of who they work for: the taxpayers. Because government bodies and law enforcement agencies serve and protect citizens, they must conduct their business with transparency.
A week ago, a 22-year-old Piedmont man was killed in a two-car crash involving an Anderson County Sheriff’s Office deputy on S.C. 8. The department was slow to release the name of the deputy involved in the crash and required that the local newspaper file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the office’s policy on police pursuits. The agency still has not released the deputy’s personnel file.
Greenville Technical College student Joshua Martin was killed in the accident that happened in the Wren community, according to a report in the Anderson Independent Mail.
Officials said the pursuit began when authorities received a report of a stolen car at the 7-Eleven on S.C. 8, and shortly thereafter, the deputy crashed into a car that was not involved in the chase.
Given that someone died in the accident, the public is bound to have questions. The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office should release as much information as possible about the accident and the deputy involved in it.
SCE&G regulation
(U)nlike most businesses, SCE&G has an incentive to spend as much money as possible regardless of whether increased expenditures are actually needed or wise.
That’s because the state Public Service Commission (PSC) regulates the percentage of return on investment the company can earn, but not the actual dollar value. Right now, SCE&G is allowed to earn up to a 10.25 percent return on common equity.
Ten percent of a multi-billion dollar nuclear reactor investment is a lot more than 10 percent of a $250 million natural gas plant, so the utility has an obvious financial motive to go big rather than playing it safe.
Worse, in 2007, the state Legislature passed an incredibly misguided piece of legislation that removed any remaining barriers to that perverse financial incentive to spend more money by forcing ratepayers to shoulder all of the financial risk involved in massive new capital projects.
The Base Load Review Act means that SCE&G can charge customers up front for financing costs related to the new nuclear reactors — and any future generating projects — and keep charging them well into the future even if those new plants never generate a single watt of electricity.…
The door should be closed to any similar mistake.
Utilities should know that their top responsibility is to the ratepayers of South Carolina, and build generating capacity with customers — rather than profits — in mind.
Viewing the eclipse
The solar eclipse in August is fast becoming one of the major leisure events of the year, maybe even the decade.…
Excitement is building.
And so is the concern. “Viewing” could leave many with permanent eye damage if appropriate caution is not taken.
The real worry is how many people will look at the sun on that day in the varying stages of diminishing sunlight. If they do so without appropriate eye protection, it will result in eye damage.
And no matter how many warnings are sounded, it will be shocking how few people heed them or even know about the danger - or even know about the eclipse until daylight moves toward darkness during the day on Aug. 21.
Count us among those wanting people to enjoy the eclipse experience as sunlight being totally blocked by the position of the moon is a rare event.
And count us among those stunned by websites and so-called experts proclaiming the danger is being overblown. Their message is that people can look safely at the sun that day when the eclipse is total, which is accurate.
But viewing the eclipse without proper eye protection when the sun is partially blocked, right up to the point when the eclipse is nearing totality (even at 99 percent), will do damage to the human eye.