our readers write

Professor Kirk Wood asked us to publish this letter to his Lexington neighbor Attorney General Alan Wilson.

After the PSC’s nearly complete capitulation to SCE&G and its approval of the Dominion Energy deal, what about the status of the Base Load Review Act?

Is this terribly-flawed law – totally in favor of SCANA-SCE&G – still valid?

As a Lexington resident and a not so happy ratepayer, I hope this act will not be renewed and applied to Dominion Energy.

In the interest of we the people and not the future stockholders of Dominion Energy and its overpaid executives, the PSC needs to be made more responsive to the public’s interest rather then the special interests of a public utility’s executives.

Guaranteeing a fixed return on capital invested only made SCANA-SCE&G officials more sensitive to their own financial needs – the price per share of their stock and protecting their investment.

With rising costs of generating electricity and the nuclear reactors – all to be paid through increases in customers’ monthly bills – SCANA did not need to worry.

The discipline of the free market must be made part of balancing corporate profits with ratepayer interests. If anything, the recent past informs us that a “blank check” in the form of making customers pay for all costs is not the path to follow.

The PSC’s role and authority in regulating public utilities needs to be strengthened to better serve ratepayers and taxpayers.

P.S. The PCS’s decision on December 21 to disallow legal fees incurred by SCANASCE&G to be a part of the settlement restored some faith in their role as a “watchdog” for the public’s interest.