We are happy to say hooray for our state lawmakers. On the last day of their session, the House and Senate passed the Energy Freedom Act and sent it to Gov. Henry Mc-Master who signed it into law.

Sen. Tom Davis called it a step to end the regulated monopolies that saddled SC Electric & Gas ratepayers with some of the highest electric bills in the US.

The Chronicle has advocated competition in electric rates since we started reporting on the abuse of 275,000 ratepayers in 2015. We have published more than 700 articles and a book about Santee Cooper and SCE&G’s nuclear mismanagement, the ill-advised law that made this possible and how other states have introduced competition in electric power and driven down electric rates.

Sen. Davis said the law will:

• Introduce competition in an open market of buyers and sellers at lower rates.

• Open the grid to new technology and power providers.

• Do away with a cap on customers selling their excess power from their solar panels.

• Allow independent producers who can generate electricity more cheaply to sell their power and pass on the savings to electric cooperative members and other power consumers.

This will give consumers lower rates in a competitive market vs. paying giant investor-owned utilities such as Duke and Dominion a guaranteed rate of return on invested capital.

That regulated system encouraged monopoly executives to undertake expensive projects such as the $9 billion failed Santee Cooper-SCE&G nuclear plant whether they are practical or not. Whatever they cost is passed on to ratepayers who have no voice in anything they decide to do.

The monopolists would build pyramids if they could get away with it, critic Jim Clarkson said.

It is not a done deal.

The Public Service Commission is charged with carrying out the law. These so-called public servants have shown little regard for the public. Watch the henhouse. The fox is on guard.

– Jerry Bellune