Letter: Potential sale of Santee Cooper

My thanks to state Rep. Russell Fry for standing with Santee Cooper customers.

Rep. Fry serves on the special legislative committee that’s considering offers to buy state-owned Santee Cooper, offers that would pay off the enormous debt and ensure lower rates than Santee Cooper’s.

Rep. Fry cast a crucial vote on the committee to pursue the offers and enter negotiations with potential buyers, a move that will benefit Santee Cooper customers, who are facing much higher rates to pay down the roughly $9 billion debt, much of it from the failed nuclear project.

If Santee Cooper is not sold, according to a Palmetto Promise Institute study, residential rates could climb as much a $650 a year and industrial rates $80,000 a month just to service the debt.

All of our legislators need to stand with Santee Cooper customers, just like Rep. Fry, to protect us from skyrocketing rates we cannot afford.

Larry Kelley

North Ocean Boulevard

Surfside Beach