A controversial law let SC Electric & Gas illegally take $2 billion from ratepayers.

That’s the opinion of SC Attorney General Alan Wilson of Lexington about the Base Load Review Act that state lawmakers passed.

The brief, released to the Chronicle, was filed Dec. 7, signed for Wilson with his approval by Deputy Solicitor General Emory Smith, Jr.

“The BLRA is the ratepayer’s worst nightmare,” Wilson told the Public Service Commission in a brief opposing 9 rate hikes that cost 727,000 ratepayers thousands of dollars each – and that they are still paying.

“It allows no due process to SCE&G customers and strips them of the ability to challenge [the] prudency [of executives’ management of a failed $9 billion nuclear project], the brief says.

The “one-sidedness” of the law violates the state constitution because it benefits SCE&G’s owners, Lexington County-based SCANA holding corporation and its investors, not the public.

Although commissioners think of themselves as a judicial body, Wilson’s brief says they lack the power to strike down the BLRA as judges can but can rule it is unconstitutional.

The brief contends:

• The BLRA violates the constitution by letting SCE&G profit through a 10.5% Return on Equity on a project it abandoned.

• SCE&G ratepayers received nothing in return for all 9 rate increases.

Wilson told the PSC a year ago the BLRA deprived ratepayers of due process.

Circuit Court Judge John Hayes was about to rule on the BLRA when SCE&G and class action plaintiffs lawyers reached a settlement.

The Office of Regulatory Staff has called that settlement unfair as it may give 11 plaintiff lawyers $100 million in fees and ratepayers only $15 million.