Nuke Fiasco aftermath

Lawmakers gambled that Dominion Energy would not walk away from buying SCANA for $7.9 billion.

Eyeball to eyeball, the Virginia power giant blinked.

Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell told Gov. Henry Mc-Master he isn’t pulling the offer to buy SCANA despite a law that cut SCE&G rates 15%, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.

The Lexington County-based owner of SC Electric & Gas is reeling from the cost of abandoning its $9 billion nuclear project.

Its stock value swooned from above $70 a share to below $40 a share.

This cost its investors – many active or retired employees – billions of dollars.

But analysts and utility experts appear to agree that Dominion had sunk too much money in lobbying lawmakers and advertising to ratepayers to pull out.

SCE&G has been charging its 700,000 ratepayers $444 million a year for a nuclear investment from which they will never see lower rates the company promised.

The rate cut is to go back to surcharges as of April 1. It is expected to cost SCE&G $365 million a year.

Farrell’s assurance to Mc-Master was confirmed by Brian Symmes, a spokesman for the governor. With that, SCANA stock rose 5% to $40.74, the highest since March 8. This made it the top performer in the S&P 500 Utilities Index, Bloomberg News reported.

As expected, SCANA is suing over lawmakers’ forced rate cut and slashed its quarterly dividend last week to “preserve” its options.