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Business groups will lobby state legislators this session on bills that involve issues ranging from worker injuries to the sex lives of fleas. Here’s a look at some other smaller issues relating to business in South Carolina: TECHNICAL COLLEGE TUITION The issue: The Small Business Chamber of Commerce will seek full funding for technical college tuition from […]

By R. Kevin Dietrich, Staff Writer, The State South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. wants to create a new rate category for medium-size businesses such as supermarkets. SCE&G, seeking to increase what it charges for electricity, has applied to the S.C. Public Service Commission to develop an “experimental rate” based on the amount of power

Published in the The Lexington County Chronicle and The-Dispatch News The state Public Service Commission may vote next Tuesday on SCE&G’s request to hike small business electric rates by 14%. “Even if S.C. Electric & Gas does not provide your electricity”, said Tim Wilkes, president of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce, “you should be concerned because

Letter to the Editor, Published in The State In the Dec. 22 Impact section, The State implied that Gov. Jim Hodges broke a campaign promise to use lottery money for free technical college tuition for South Carolinians. The anonymous author also mocked the governor’s statement that technical college enrollment would increase because free tuition would

By Dave L’Heureux, Staff Writer Supermarkets could raise the price of groceries to offset electric power increases by South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. if rate hikes are approved by regulators, industry officials said Friday. A Bi-Lo executive told state utility regulators higher rates would cost Bi-Lo more than $500,000 a year for electricity in

By Dave L’Heureux, Staff Writer South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. will lose investors and pay higher interest rates if it cannot raise electric rates next year, a Wall Street expert told state utility regulators Wednesday. But rate hike opponents disputed the need for higher rates, insisting during the third day of testimony that SCE&G

Published in The Lexington Chronicle and The-Dispatch News S.C. Electric & Gas’s top executive admits the company has no idea what a 14% rate increase will do to small business. During state Public Service Commission hearings into SCE&G’s requested rate increase,  Commissioner Robert Moseley asked the power company’s estimate of the impact of the hike.

By Dave L’Heureux, Staff Writer South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.’s proposed electric rate increases will hurt retirees, working people and businesses, speakers told utility regulators Monday. SCE&G wants to raise electric rates by $112 million per year, starting February, largely to boost its generating capacity. It is asking the S.C. Public Service Commission to