Mid-Carolina Electric and 19 other co-ops are fighting back over nuclear costs.

They are suing taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper to halt any charges to their member owners for its $4 billion nuclear debt.

That debt comes from the $9 billion Lexington County-based SC Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper’s $4 billion wasted on a failed Fairfield County nuclear fiasco.

Mid-Carolina in Lexington County and the state’s other co-ops fear Santee Cooper will try to recover $4 billion from their members.

That could cost their members thousands of dollars in higher electricity bills over the next 40 years.

In a 38-page filing, The State newspaper reported the co-ops claim Santee Cooper lied about problems with skyrocketing construction costs and long delays.

The co-ops say Santee Cooper violated their contract by hiding information about the project’s flaws.

Santee Cooper claims it was SCE&G’s victim as 45% minority owner and was powerless against its majority partner’s management.

Co-op attorney Frank Ellerbe wrote in the filing that Santee Cooper emails and letters “tell the indisputable story of a project beset almost from the beginning with myriad fundamental, entrenched problems that led inexorably to major delays and cost overruns. Yet, it was a story Santee Cooper kept largely to itself.”

Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore denied this and said the co-ops were “kept aware of the project’s status throughout.”

inside: $4 billion at

stake in suit, Page A3.

Lawsuit aims to block charges for nuclear fiasco