What are the chances lawmakers will cut high electric rates this week?

Statehouse observers see little chance of that during a special summer session.

It’s been almost a year since SC Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper shut down a $9 billion nuclear project.

State lawmakers have held hearings but passed no laws to stop the two power companies from continuing to charge their ratepayers.

Prodded by angry constituents, lawmakers made a lot of noise, but the House and Senate have not agreed on relief for more than 1 million ratepayers.

Lawmakers worked on an $8.2 billion spending plan Wednesday and Thursday.

That will leave little time to pass bills to protect ratepayers from high electric rates for the nuclear fiasco.

The House and Senate need to work out differences over bills to reform the Public Service Commission and lower SCE&G rates.

The Lexington County company is still charging 700,000 ratepayers $37 million a month for the abandoned nuclear project.

Negotiators have told the media they are optimistic they will reach an agreement to pass some bills.

They will have a second chance this fall when they return to consider the governor’s budget vetoes and elect a new Public Service Commissioner.

Lawmakers spent six months on bills to reform regulation and the state law that let the utilities charge their ratepayers for the abandoned project.

The bills probably will have to wait until 2019.

Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler, D-West Columbia, said senators “worked very diligently.”

Senate leaders would cut SCE&G’s rates 13%, not the 15% the company says it charges for the project.

Cutting more could help SCE&G in a lawsuit against the state, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said.

“If you get greedy, customers are not going to benefit at all,” he said.