Settlement on ratepayer lawsuit doesn't change the need for SC to sell Santee Cooper
Sometime this month a judge is expected to give final approval to the settlement in the Cook lawsuit. It is a lawsuit by Santee Cooper ratepayers against the utility, and it seeks to recover past payments for the abandoned nuclear construction project in Fairfield County.
Under this settlement ratepayers will recover these past payments in two parts:
▪ 75% this September.
▪ The remaining amount during the fourth quarter of 2022.
Santee Cooper has also agreed to roll back rates by about 8% in keeping with the arbitrary rates proposed in its plan to reform itself. The rollback will take effect next month, and the utility is supposed to freeze rates until the end of 2024. But while all of this sounds good, here’s what Santee Cooper customers could have had already:
▪ This year Santee Cooper rates could have been reduced by about 18% — not 8% — and kept there until 2025.
▪ This year Santee Cooper ratepayers could have recovered 100% of the money they have paid for the nuclear project debacle — not just 75%.
▪ This year Santee Cooper ratepayers could have had all the utility’s $6.8 billion debt eliminated — a debt that customers will eventually have to pay if Santee Cooper remains a state-owned entity. The Cook lawsuit settlement, however, does not relieve Santee Cooper ratepayers of this debt.
So why aren’t Santee Cooper customers receiving these far better benefits?
Read more: https://www.thestate.com/article244215772.html