By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G) is becoming Dominion Energy now that the utility’s sale officially finalized Wednesday.
About 730,000 electric customers in the state now will get power through the Virginia-based utility. The buyout brings several entities of the Cayce-based SCANA (SCE&G, SCANA Energy in Georgia and PSNC Energy in Georgia) and their roughly 5,200 employees under Dominion Energy now. But if you’re still getting correspondence from SCE&G, the brand name soon will catch up with the sale. It may take up to six months for the SCE&G brand to shift to Dominion, according to a spokesperson … from SCE&G.
For 17 months, SCE&G has floundered for its majority stakeholder role in the fallout of a shuttered $9 billion nuclear project, drawing lawsuits and ire from lawmakers.
As part of the purchase deal, the utility will continue to collect $2.3 billion from ratepayers toward the unfinished nuclear reactors over the next two decades and power prices will remain unchanged for customers, permanently locking in the rate cut ordered by the legislature at the end of last session. Read more here.
In other news items this week:
S.C. is hot despite tax climate. Five of the 10 worst-performing states on the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index are also among the 10 states with the most outbound migration in this year’s National Movers Study. But South Carolina bucked that trend — probably because of its palmetto trees, sunsets and hospitality. South Carolina was ranked 35 (in a list where you want to be No. 1, putting it in the bottom 15 of states) for its business tax climate, and yet is No. 6 for inbound migration. More info.
College watchdog gets new head. The S.C. Commission on Higher Education has tapped Michael LeFever to serve as interim president and executive director. At the tail end of 2018, CHE’s President and Executive Director Jeff Schilz resigned after lawmakers questioned the legitimacy of a $91,500 pay raise by the CHE board. He was the second official to resign after the misstep. LeFever is the former president and CEO of South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. He has served as the director of four different state agencies including 13 years as the executive director of the Workers’ Compensation Commission and as deputy chief of staff for Executive Office Programs and Cabinet Affairs in the administration of Gov. Jim Hodges.
Big data breach back in news. About 6 million South Carolinians had their data exposed in 2013 to hackers. Since that time, South Carolina has tried to adopt industry standards for centralizing security rules for the state’s 100-plus agencies, but a system on checking whether those agencies have those protections in place is still in the works. Read more here.
Clean energy group mobilizing. A coalition of solar industry groups, conservation organizations and clean energy advocates announced this week a 100 Day Clean Energy Agenda, calling on state lawmakers to pass a suite of policies in the first 100 days of 2019 that will inject competition into South Carolina’s energy sector. The campaign reportedly will include over 750,000 contacts across key legislative districts in every region of the state to stress the need for legislative action by April 10 – the 100th day of 2019. The coalition (click here to see who they are) is promoting: elimination of the net metering cap for residential solar, fair and transparent rates for both residential and large-scale solar, allowances for businesses to contract directly with independent clean power providers, and encouragement of solar accessibility to all South Carolinians, regardless of income. Lowcountry Republicans Rep. Peter McCoy of James Island and Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort are part of the coalition.
Flu is everywhere in S.C. (And that includes this correspondent.) The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting increases in flu in the state — specifically for the Lowcountry and Midlands. Wash those hands, cover that cough, get a flu shot (if you’re inclined), and eat an orange. It may not help, but at least you tried.
Looking ahead
Click below for other items coming up in the Statehouse:
- House calendar
- Senate calendar
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!