SC Sierra Club calls for change in selection process of Public Service Commissioners
September 21, 2015
SC Public Service Commission Considers Vote on 8th Rate Hike for Dual-Reactor Development at V.C. Summer Site
COLUMBIA, SC – The SC Public Service Commission (PSC) will vote this Wednesday, September 23rd at 2 p.m. on approving an annual rate hike for the 8th cost schedule overrun of SCE&G’s V.C. Summer nuclear reactor project in Jenkinsville. The $6.8 billion undertaking is once again over-budget and behind schedule.
Following SCE&G’s request in May for the V.C. Summer project’s additional cost overrun, which would allow SCE&G to pass the cost burden on to its ratepayers under the Baseload Review Act if approved, the South Carolina Sierra Club intervened before the PSC to request it deny its approval.
In its legal intervention, the SC Sierra Club contended the project was destined to fail from the beginning and that its continued cost overrun claims are a sustained power-grab by SCE&G to be subsidized by SC citizens while continuing the development of dangerous and dirty nuclear reactors. The project is now 3 years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over its original budget.
The South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) has stated that the percentage of an SCE&G customer’s bill subsidizing the nuclear project will once again increase and will now total 15.5%. SC residents’ average electricity bills are the highest in the South and the third highest in the country, at 23.36% higher than the national average.
A survey of SCE&G customers and citzens who testified before the PSC during these hearings unanimously opposed the cost overrun and, thereby, rate hike request. The SC Sierra Club takes issue with the fact that the PSC could grant the latest rate hike in the face of such unanimous opposition.
As a result, Susan Corbett, Chair of the SC Sierra Club, called for changing the way we select Public Service Commissioners, noting, “The PSC has chosen to ignore the repeated calls by ratepayers and large energy users for relief from the high electric rates and increased utility bills being caused directly by this nuclear project. Evidently, it’s time we changed the way we select Public Service Commissioners to ensure they hear from, are accountable towards and take seriously the voices of those most impacted by their decisions.”
The SC Sierra Club has been joined by the SC AARP, the SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce and Savannah River Site Watch in opposing this latest cost overrun request. The SC Sierra Club has not heard from or seen a single consumer endorse the rate hike.
