Opinions mixed during hearing about failed nuclear power project, Aiken Standard, By Dede Biles dbiles@aikenstandard.com, Oct 11, 2018 Not many people had something they wanted to say about an abandoned nuclear construction project in Fairfield County during the S.C. Public Service Commission’s hearing Monday.
More than 80 people showed up at the Aiken County Government Center, but only 12 testified before the panel, which is considering whether to approve a pending merger between Virginia-based Dominion Energy and SCANA, which is the parent company of SCE&G.
The commission also is trying to decide how much, if anything, SCE&G customers can be charged in the future to help pay for the failed venture’s billions of dollars in cost.
SCE&G and state-owned Santee Cooper were building a new generation of nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer facility.
Monday’s hearing lasted less than an hour, and the opinions expressed were mixed about the merger.
“I’m kind of against the merger,” said Eric Savage of Aiken. “We hear all the things that Dominion says about how they are going to provide (an average refund of) $1,000 to customers and better things for our community, but what about the money that people have already lost (because of rate increases)? We want to know who is standing behind the South Carolina residents who have already paid out so much? Some of them are on fixed incomes.”……..
Chris Hall of Aiken described the situation with the abandoned nuclear project as “a fiscal nightmare.” He also complained that “rate payers have been asked to bear the burden (through rate hikes)” while SCE&G’s “senior-level executives have gone on with their highly-compensated bonuses and salaries.”……..
The Public Service Commission also held a hearing about the abandoned nuclear power project Monday in Columbia and another is scheduled for North Charleston on Oct. 15 https://www.aikenstandard.com/news/opinions-mixed-during-hearing-about-failed-nuclear-power-project/article_18d0e472-ca79-11e8-8482-0b530859c42f.html