PRESS RELEASE
Date: February 11, 2020
From: South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce
Subject: BREAKING NEWS: Small Businesses Support Sale of Santee Cooper to NextEra
Contact: Frank Knapp, President/CEO, 803-252-5733 (w), 803-600-6874 (c), fknapp@scsbc.org
BREAKING NEWS:
Small Businesses Support Sale of Santee Cooper to NextEra
Columbia, SC—Today the South Carolina Department of Administration sent its recommendations to the state legislature regarding the potential sale, management or reform of state-owned Santee Cooper.
The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce (SCSBCC) has been the primary organization advocating to keep electric prices low for small businesses throughout the state for years and in the wake of the V.C. Summer debacle have encouraged the sale of Santee Cooper to a private company who will remove the nuclear debt from customers’ bills. Today marks a major step in making that a reality.
“The offer on the table to purchase Santee Cooper puts ratepayers first and protects small businesses here in South Carolina,” said Frank Knapp, Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. Knapp continued, “NextEra’s bid to purchase the state own utility includes paying off all of Santee Cooper’s $7.9 billion of debt and returns the $941 million customers already paid towards the abandoned V.C. Summer project. The other bids for management or reform simply do not do that. The SCSBCC urges the state legislature to act thoughtfully, but quickly, during the 2020 session to relieve Santee Cooper’s business, residential and industrial customers from the utility’s crushing debt load.”
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The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is a statewide advocacy organization founded in 2000. With over 10,000 small business and entrepreneur supporters, it has successfully worked to make South Carolina more small business friendly in areas such as healthcare, taxation, regulation, worker training, energy/conservation, workers’ compensation and economic development.