JerryBellune@yahoo.com

State regulators are not doing their jobs.

That’s the contention of a state chamber official who blames Public Service Commissioners for giving SC Electric & Gas a free hand.

The PSC has failed to order SCE&G to turn over secret documents to those seeking rate relief from $37 million a month in nuclear surcharges, said SC Small Business CEO Frank Knapp.

Yet it wants those seeking a rate reduction to testify without access to information showing whether SCE&G mismanaged the failure of its $9 billion nuclear power project, he said.

“If the PSC doesn’t compel SCE&G to turn over all requested documents, the ORS and others will be unable to present an effective argument for rate relief. Nor will the PSC have what’s needed to roll back rates.”

The Public Service Commission approved SCE&G’s construction cost overruns and nine rate hikes for the abandoned nuclear reactors.

Knapp also blamed state lawmakers for their part in creating the nuclear fiasco.

“The BLRA law our General Assembly passed was the real culprit in this debacle,” he said. “It compelled the PSC to approve every construction cost increase and associated rate hike.”

Knapp’s full remarks appear on page A11.