nuke fiasco aftermath

SC Electric & Gas should no longer hide its nuclear surcharges.

That’s the contention of Tom Clements of Friends of the Earth, a group that is suuing SCE&G over its management of a failed $9 billion nuclear project.

Clements was one of many ratepayers and critics who spoke at a Public Service Commission hearing Monday night.

He said the surcharges which have been as high as 18% “has unfortunately and unacceptably been hidden and not included on the SCE&G monthly bill.

“I have no idea how much I have paid for the nuclear debacle since 2009.

“Since the unjustified nuclear project was approved by the PSC in February 2009 and until the August 2018 bill, no SCE&G customer could determine by looking at their bill how much money they were being charged for the nuclear project.

“SCE&G chose to omit the nuclear charge from the bill and the PSC did not act to require it ... hiding from customers that a growing portion of the bill was going to the dead-end project.”

Clements said Georgia Power has a line-item on its bills for the Vogtle nuclear project, also being built with Westinghouse Electric nuclear reactors.

“Customers in Georgia can see the nuclear charge on their monthly bill. We expect equal treatment.

SCE&G collected “$2 billion from customers just to pay for financing the boondoggle. Be assured that the company also handsomely profited on collecting this.”

Clements asked the PSC to require any surcharge to be placed on the SCE&G bill starting in January 2019 “if customers are to pay for the mistakes of SCE&G.”