This Op-Ed, written by PPI Senior Fellow Oran Smith, PhD, was originally published in The Post & Courier. The graphic was created by PPI and not included in the Post & Courier’s publication. Click to enlarge. In the case of Jessica Cook et al., a South Carolina court approved a settlement between state-owned Santee Cooper,
This op-ed was written by Palmetto Promise Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith and was published in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Because I registered my opinion way back in 1994, surely I was among the first to call for the state to sell Santee Cooper and get out of the utility business. But that said, my opinion
I was among the first to call for the state to Sell Santee Cooper and get out of the utility business. This call came not under Governor Henry McMaster (2017) or even under Governor Mark Sanford (2002), but in the 1990s when I was asked to contribute ideas to a bipartisan policy manual for Governor-Elect
On July 31, 2017, Santee Cooper and SCE&G announced that they were abandoning work on the expansion of the V.C. Nuclear Station in Fairfield County. Shortly thereafter, Palmetto Promise went to work digging into the financial and policy implications of that decision for taxpayers and ratepayers. PPI has stayed true to our research mission, providing an
Earlier this week, the state Department of Administration (DOA) released its long-anticipated report presenting three possible options for the future of Santee Cooper.
On Thursday, The Post & Courier reported that Justice Jean Toal denied Santee Cooper’s request to stop the case against them from remaining a class-action lawsuit. This was a severe blow to Santee Cooper’s court fight over whether or not their customers should shoulder the burden of billions in debt from their failed nuclear project.
Before the bell rang on the 2019 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that set the stage for a potential sale of Santee Cooper in 2020. The bill stipulated that the Department of Administration would receive proposals to (1) sell the state-owned utility, (2) management offers, and (3) a proposal from Santee Cooper to reform themselves.
The manufacturing process for Century Aluminum is extremely electricity dependent, requiring at full capacity 400 megawatts of electricity per year. That level of use (400 megawatts would power 80,000 homes) means that electricity is about 40% of the cost of operating the plant, its single highest expense. Unfortunately, high energy costs risk putting it out of business.
Earlier this summer, Palmetto Promise Institute conducted an in-depth study of aspects of Santee Cooper’s finances. Due to the opaque nature of Santee Cooper’s finances, our research was based on Santee Cooper published sources, legal filings, correspondence to elected officials, legislative hearings, and the reporting of The State and The Post & Courier.
Throughout the fall of 2017, as another football season came and went, PPI watched and waited for someone—anyone—to step up for Santee Cooper customers. Thanks to the actions of two special legislative committees, the public did learn a lot about the demise of V.C. Summer, but there was a clear message: tackle SCE&G first, then Santee Cooper.
