SC Attorney General Alan Wilson supports lawmakers effort to cut SC Electric & Gas rates 15%.

Wilson said this will bring relief to SCE&G ratepayers and to the company accountable for its spending on a failed nuclear plant.

SCE&G has appealed a federal judge’s ruling to the US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Michelle Childs ruled that a new law to temporarily cut SCE&G’s rates 15% should be allowed.

That rate cut should appear in Chronicle readers’ bills this month.

SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce CEO Frank Knapp, a critic of SCE&G’s rising rates, said his bill dropped to $74 this month.

SCE&G is asking the Court of Appeals to stay Judge Childs’ ruling while the appeal is ongoing. The Attorney General’s Office also filed a 40-page brief before Judge Childs before her ruling.

The brief, written by state Solicitor General Bob Cook, says “The Legislature expressly determined it to be in the ‘public interest’ to reduce rates temporarily.” The brief also points out that the District Court ruled twice that SCE&G is not likely to win its case and twice rejected the company’s attempt to block the rate cut. Therefore, SCE&G’s request that the Court of Appeals block the rate reduction should be denied, allowing the rate cut to continue while the appeal is moving through the court system.