SCANA Corp. will pay its employees and other investors 48.88¢ a share less this quarter than last year.

The Lexington County-based holding company’s board declared a 3rd quarterly dividend of 12.37¢ a share, payable October 1.

SCANA paid investors a 3rd quarter dividend of 61.25¢ last year.

The company’s value has plunged due to its decision to abandon the 2 Westinghouse nuclear reactors n which it had already invested more than $9 billion.

The company owns SC Electric & Gas which had promised more than 11 years ago to bring SC cleaner energy and reward ratepayers with lower rates.

Since then, with the benefit of a special state law, it has charged 700,000 ratepayers about $2 billion in higher rates – at $37 million a month – due to cost overruns on the reactors.

SCE&G now has asked the Public Service Commission to approve charging ratepayers another $4.7 billion for the cost of abandoning the reactors, Director Nanette Edwards of the Office of Regulatory Staff said.

The Charleston Post and Courier reported SCE&G squandered $1.34 billion of ratepayers’ higher rates on the failed nuclear plant and profited by $66 million — the rest of a reported $2 billion it charged ratepayers.

SCANA has put more than $660 million into dividends, bonuses and golden parachutes for its executives, the newspaper reported.

SCANA set up a $110 million irrevocable trust to pay severance for 11 current and former executives should regulators and state lawmakers let Dominion Energy buy the company.

According to a deposition from SCANA’s former accountant, 3 of those 11 who may get almost $14 million urged her to lie to regulators about the project.

“I’ve been a prosecutor and a criminal defense lawyer for a long time,” said state Rep. Peter McCoy, “and I’ve seen people indicted for a lot less than this. I’m not sure how they look at themselves in the mirror every morning.”

Each of SCE&G’s 700,000 ratepayers have paid an average of $2,857 toward the unfinished nuclear plants.

Of that, almost $950 – 1/3rd of it – was profit.

The trust fund will never be touched, the newspaper reported, unless an executive is convicted of a crime that requires restitution.

SCE&G attorneys said in federal court that their clients are being deprived of their constitutional rights.

They said state lawmakers’ demands that they cut electric rates by 15% is vindictive, unfair and could slash investors’ dividends.