State lawmakers and regulators have spent at least $729,000 on consultants to give them advice.

That includes $379,203 since last July 1 paid by the House and Senate chambers to Virginia-based ICF.

The consulting firm has reported on proposals by unidentified prospects to buy all or part of state-owned Santee Cooper.

That taxpayer-owned utility was the 45% minority partner with SC Electric & Gas in two failed $9 billion nuclear reactor project.

House Clerk Charles Reid and Senate Clerk Jeff Gos-sett provided the latest ICF payments although they didn’t respond to questions on specific payments and future consulting costs.

A 9-member Public Service Authority Evaluation and Recommendation Committee includes Gov. Henry McMaster, who wants the sale, and is co-chaired by Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Berkeley, and Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.

Santee Cooper’s debt including the $9 billion failed nuclear project it owns with Dominion Energy is projected at $15 billion with interest if paid over 40 years.

An obscure, 5-member Santee Cooper advisory committee, which includes the governor and 4 other elected officials, never met to discuss the now-abandoned nuclear project.

In the last fiscal year, the House and Senate paid $70,219 to ICF.

The Senate in fiscal 2018 paid Washington, DC-based Bates White Economic Consulting $152,428 for a report that showed SCE&G could cut electric rates 13% or about $19 a month for residential ratepayers without danger of bankruptcy.

The House initially was to cut SCE&G bills about $27, or 18%, a month.

The Public Service Commission in December approved Dominion buying Lexington County-based SCANA Corp., SCE&G’s parent organization.

The deal included an offer to cut monthly bills $22.

SCE&G ratepayers have paid more than $2 billion for the failed project and would continue paying an average of about $5 a month over 20 years for the unfinished reactors.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.the-nerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@the-nerve.org