Congratulations to the Santee Cooper Board of Directors for today’s decision not to raise electric rates to pay for the now abandoned nuclear construction project at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County.
Now it is SCE&G’s turn to make the same announcement for its ratepayers.
If Santee Cooper can find approximately $4 billion in savings within its operating budget and anticipated revenue ($4 billion is its financial obligation to the construction project), surely SCE&G can over the years absorb its $4.9 billion part of the project.
SCE&G is a financially healthy company. Its publicly traded parent company, SCANA, reported 15% higher earnings the second quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year. That equates to a $121 million in earnings for the three-month period. The first six months of this year saw SCANA’s earnings reach $292 million, nearly 10% higher than the same six months of 2016.
The amazingly generous annual compensation packages of SCANA’s top executives ($6.1 million, $2.58 million, $2.58 million, $1.5 million and $1.22 million) puts them in an elite class of employees in South Carolina. They need to put their high-priced brains together and propose a solution to this costly mess that their ratepayers will accept.