PRESS STATEMENT
Date: October 26, 2018
From: South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce
Subject: Dominion’s Latest “Best and Final” Offer
Contact: Frank Knapp, President/CEO, 803-252-5733 (w), 803-600-6874 (c),
fknapp@scsbc.org
Below is a statement by Frank Knapp Jr., pro se intervenor in the upcoming Public Service Commission hearing on SCE&G abandonment costs for the nuclear project and Dominion’s acquisition of SCANA.
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This week the parties opposing the Dominion/SCANA proposal to the Public Service Commission for recovering abandonment costs for the failed nuclear project in Fairfield County received a new offer from Dominion. The discussions of this Common Interest group, led by the Office of Regulatory Staff, and even the new Dominion proposal itself were to be completely confidential. The Common Interest group did not accept Dominion’s new offer, which the utility has now made public.
This new “best and final” offer calls for an SCE&G electric rate hike of a little less than 2 percent above the current rates consumers are now paying. This compares to the 5 percent rate decrease from current rates proposed by the Office of Regulatory Staff. The new Dominion offer also eliminates their original cash back proposal which they mischaracterized as a refund instead of what it really is—a loan that consumers must pay back with about 10% interest over 20 years.
In his new testimony filed with the PSC yesterday, Mr. Thomas Farrell, President and CEO of Dominion, continues to insist that the Office of Regulatory Staff’s proposal “would be devastating not only to this proposed business combination but also to SCE&G’s future and to the interests of SCE&G’s customers and the state of South Carolina in reliable electric service at just and reasonable rates.”
The fear that Mr. Farrell is selling is that without Dominion purchasing SCANA, SCE&G would file for bankruptcy, not be able to provide good electric service and will have to charge higher rates. I and others reject these assertions and look forward to the upcoming PSC hearing to secure a better deal for ratepayers.
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