the nuclear fiasco

Why has the PSC enabled Dominion Energy to be on any docket except the ones dealing with the proposed sale of SCANA and its affliate SC Electric & Gas.

The sale has not been approved yet their name is in the dockets about rate increase requests in which they aren’t involved.

The PSC needs to place the issue about the sale on a separate docket from all issues to do with the VC Summer nuclear fiasco.

Dominion is spending large amounts of money to make it appear they have an interest in this. The fact is, they don’t legally.

Their interests are in keeping 725,000 ratepayers paying by changing ownership in hopes there will be no rights to claim reparations by the ratepayers after the sale.

The PSC has the power to separate the dockets – the sale separate from the rate changes and VC Summer closure – and keep the water clear. The muddy water created by SCANA is intentional and only the blind cannot see it. Believe me, the public sees it as do many lawmakers. That’s why they passed a temporary rate reduction this year.

The PSC is being inundated with problems from the nuclear reactor fiasco as well as the nuclear pollution leak at Westinghouse’s Bluff Road plant.

Westinghouse is the same company that has declared bankruptcy and abandoned the VC Summer nuclear reactors. Westinghouse is not to be trusted in any endeavor.

Westinghouse is the designer of the two AP1000 nuclear reactors that were being built at VC Summer. Those plans were never in a state of completion by any schedule from the start. Because of that, it is safe to say any increase in rates should have been refused by the PSC from the first until a full schedule and budget was presented.

This means a schedule without loopholes or “figures unknown at this time”.

All Commissioners had to do was say, “the rate increase would not be prudent AT THIS TIME.” Force SCANA to prove their costs, their schedule and completion dates.

At that point the commissioners should have stood their ground.

Only one AP1000 unit in China has just been connected to the grid. But it is in testing stages and not in commercial operation. And there has been no date given of when, or if, that will happen.

No Westinghouse schedule or dates sound familiar? Nor have they said how much that unit cost the Chinese government.

The State of South Carolina should look at other sources of energy, to be independent and strong as a state. Joining with Dominion is not the answer.

If you think the PSC is having problems now, just listen to what has been said about Dominion in Virginia and the other states where Dominion operates.

The buy-in that Dominion is constructing is, most likely, a smoke screen for Dominion to push their pipeline to get to the states on the other side of us. We don’t need them.

Even if SCANA goes bankrupt, SCE&G can stand on it’s own. Ratepayer money will still be coming in. If what ratepayers spend for what we consume goes only to SCE&G and not to SCANA executives, it can and will sustain itself.

Sandra Wright s a local business owner.