Day 10 of the PSC hearing was devoted entirely to the testimony of George Wenick, SCE&G’s outside attorney who advised SCE&G and Santee Cooper on the nuclear project.
It was Mr. Wenick’s law firm that hired the Bechtel Corporation in 2015 for an independent analysis of the nuclear project. In testimony Mr. Wenick said that the Bechtel analysis had two purposes. It was clear that SCE&G and Santee Cooper were looking for an assessment that could help get the project on track.
Upon seeing the draft Assessment Proposal outlining the services of Bechtel, in a May 22, 2015 email to SCANA Mr. Wenick said that “we need to prevent Bechtel’s product from being discoverable. To do that, we need to establish that we are hiring Bechtel ‘in anticipation of litigation or to prepare for that.”
While the possibility of litigation with vendors, that had or were working on the project, was eliminated by November of 2015, SCE&G used the excuse of the Bechtel Report belonging to Mr. Wenick’s law firm as a litigation preparation product to not reveal the report to the ORS and PSC.
Mr. Wenick also attempted to back up the other reason SCE&G used for not revealing the Bechtel Report, that is was of little use. He thought Bechtel used inferior methodologies to estimate the time needed to finish the construction project.
Mr. Wenick said that he never advised his clients not to tell ORS about the Bechtel Report.
Day 11 of the hearing starts on Thursday.
Frank Knapp