If The Law Is Ruled Unconstitutional, Scana May Have To Repay Ratepayers $2 Billion.”

Judge John C. Hayes may be about to become the best loved jurist in the state.

The York County Circuit Court judge may rule that the controversial Base Load Review Act violates the state Constitution.

That act, passed by lawmakers including those who represented Lexington County voters at the time, allowed SC Electric & Gas to charge its electricity customers $2 billion in a series of 9 rate hikes over 9 years.

“Such a ruling would potentially void all spending by SCE&G on the failed nuclear project,” said Tom Clements of the Friends of the Earth.

His group and many others are suing SCE&G to recover the $2 billion it charged its 727,000 ratepayers for its mismanaged and ultimately abandoned Westinghouse nuclear reactors.

A script writer could not have written a more lurid scenario.

Westinghouse is now in bankruptcy court and the top SCE&G and Santee Cooper executives who presided over this fiasco have taken their money and run into a cushy retirement. They have also left holding the bag their investors – many of them hard-working employees and retirees whose future in peril.

“As SCE&G does not have the cash at hand, all of a sudden they and Dominion (Energy) may be forced to be more open to bargaining.” Clements said.

In an announcement last week, Lexington County-based SCANA revealed what Judge Hayes is doing. He told lawyers for SCE&G and those suing to submit proposals that include language saying the BLRA violates the due process provisions of the SC Constitution.

Frank Knapp of the Stop the Blank Check Coalition said the judge’s ruling could have an impact on a Nov. 1 Public Service Commission hearing to decide what rates SCE&G can charge.

A lot is at stake including:

• Possible criminal prosecution of SCE&G executives.

• The already sullied reputation and future of SCANA.

• Whether Dominion Energy will even want to buy SCANA facing this kind of payoff.

A day of reckoning is ahead.

- JerryBellune@yahoo.com

If the law is ruled unconstitutional, SCANA may have to repay ratepayers $2 billion.