The proposed settlement of the private class action suit against SCE&G to recover $2 billion in rates already paid by customers for the abandoned nuclear project comes up short…way short.
Yes, SCE&G agrees not to charge ratepayers for the $115 million golden parachutes for executives. That will make the customers happy but not as happy as if the executives would get no payouts.
Yes, SCE&G agrees to sell some non-essential property with a value around $70 million and give that back to ratepayers somehow. But that was property SCE&G was probably going to have to sell anyway given their need for cash.
And yes, past SCE&G customers who would not have recovered any of the money they paid since 2009 would be in line for a check of some amount from the utility. But that would come out of the pockets of current ratepayers who aren’t going to be very happy paying higher bills in order for SCE&G to send money to Florida.
All in all, the proposed class action settlement gets SCE&G to commit to giving about $185 million back to customers. But this deal is dependent on the Public Service Commission accepting Dominion Energy’s last proposal offered during last week’s hearing.
That would not be in the best interest of ratepayers.
Oh, and then there are the attorney fees that might take 1/3 of the settlement cash.
I had higher hopes for the class action suit. My wish was that the suit would claw back all the over $2 billion ratepayers have paid for the nuclear project that won’t produce one watt of electricity.
What a disappointment.
Frank Knapp