This week House and Senate Committees will try to make recommendations to their respective bodies as to how to move forward with Santee Cooper—sell it or reform it.
During all the testimonies and deliberations on the issue, some have attempted to muddy the waters about NextEra’s proposal to purchase the state-owned utility.
Essentially, NextEra’s offer to purchase Santee Cooper would relieve ratepayers of the $6.8 billion nuclear debt and would clear the rest of the debt the utility racked up. On top of that, a sale would give back the money customers already paid towards the failed V.C. Summer project.
Opponents of a sale are trying to everything in their power to sling mud on NextEra’s purchase offer.
Some are even trying to label NextEra’s purchase as the Base Load Review Act 2.0. The BLRA was the state law that enabled SCE&G to run billions over original construction costs for the failed nuclear project in Fairfield County and increase rates 9 times totaling 18% before the project was abandoned. And then the law allowed SCE&G to try to recover all its construction debt from the customers.
No wonder the very mention of the BLRA causes most South Carolinians to run in the other direction. This is precisely why some are aligning it with NextEra’s offer.
The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is no stranger to the BLRA debate. We’ve been raising concerns about the BLRA to lawmakers and citizens alike since 2015. That’s why it makes sense for us to set the record straight about BLRA and NextEra’s proposal.
Here’s what the BLRA did:
- Required ratepayers when the nuclear plants were in service to pay billions more for the construction than what was originally approved by the Public Service Commission.
- Allowed SCE&G to increase rates every year for the financing of the project while the nuclear plants were being constructed.
- Gave SCE&G the legal right to recover all its costs for the nuclear project – including almost another 10% for SCE&G profits – even if the project was abandoned for any reason.
Here’s what’s in NextEra’s offer:
- The utility would not recover any construction costs that exceed their hard cost caps for projects.
- Consumers will not pay for construction costs until projects are up and running.
- The utility will not be able to recover any construction costs for abandoned projects unless the reason is due to changes in federal laws or regulations that would legally prohibit the project from being completed.
The proposal from NextEra is not the BLRA reincarnated. Instead, it is a responsible business acquisition proposal that rejects the “blank check” provisions of the BLRA.