BIG STORY: “Climate doesn’t care” who owns Santee Cooper, expert says

By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent  | The 111-page legislatively-mandated state  report that evaluates three alternatives for public utility Santee Cooper has no mention of “climate change” or “pollution.” 

But climate change, conservationists say, should be a significant part of the ongoing discussion of the utility that serves 2 million customers since any decision could dramatically reshape local carbon emissions and alter watersheds.

“The climate doesn’t care who owns (Santee Cooper). It cares what we do,” Coastal Conservation League Energy and Climate Program Director Eddy Moore told Statehouse Report this week. Last year, Moore said resolution of Santee Cooper’s future would be one of the biggest climate decisions for South Carolina to answer. 

So far, however, lawmakers and the bidders appear focused more on rates for customers, than impacts to the climate, which generally align with less coal-fueled power generation and more renewable energy. 

Where we are now  

Santee Cooper’s future has languished for years as lawmakers have batted it back and forth following the very public 2017 demise of a nuclear power plant expansion with private partner South Carolina Electric and Gas.  The debacle cost more than $9 billion, led to the sale of SCE&G to Virginia-based Dominion Energy and a leadership shakeup at Santee Cooper, which held a 45 percent share in the project.  

For the past three years, lawmakers have pondered whether the public utility would be better off and more responsive to market demands in private hands. Santee Cooper is one of the largest public utilities in the country.

Bids submitted to the state included an $8 billion buy by Florida private utility NextEra, Santee Cooper’s plan to reform, and a management bid by Dominion Energy.

The House and Senate budget-writing committees Thursday  threw out all three bids presented by the S.C. Department of Administration report on Thursday. The House Ways and Means Committee seeks House approval for a bill that would reform the utility as a select team of senators and representatives renegotiate a sales bid. The Senate Finance Committee seeks Senate approval for a bill that would task lawmakers with reforming Santee Cooper. 

Bids seek more solar, less coal

While there is no mention of climate change in the Department of Administration report, the bids from  the utilities contain 14 references to “solar,” 16 references to “renewable,” and six references to “carbon.” “Improving resource mix” and reducing carbon dioxide emissions is mentioned in all three bids. 

The bids all seek to increase solar by about 1,000 megawatts over the next four years, and shutter the existing coal plant, Winyah, in Georgetown. 

Conservation League’s Moore said climate action is more “tacit” than “explicit” in the report, adding that the bids mostly cite economic, not environmental or community, reasons for going “greener.

Statehouse Report reached out to NextEra, Dominion and Santee Cooper to discuss whether climate change played a role in their bids. 

Dominion spokesman Ryan Frazier responded to the request with a statement:

“At Dominion Energy, our mission is to provide safe, reliable and affordable energy to our customers, and we aim to do so while minimizing our impact on the environment.” 

When asked for the opportunity to talk to someone or ask further questions, Frazier responded: “The statement speaks for itself.” The spokesman did not respond to a follow-up email.   

NextEra did not respond. 

Santee Cooper on climate change and its proposal

Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce founder and head Marilyn Hemingway of Georgetown testified to the House’s ad hoc committee Santee Cooper bids on Monday. She told Statehouse Report that the question of carbon emissions and water impacts of Santee Cooper is foremost on her mind. 

“Santee Cooper has not been a good community partner,” she said. “They should be a leader in addressing issues such as climate change and its impact on marginalized communities.”

She said the utility has moved too slow on renewable energy sources, and it has discounted its impact on waterways that has led to marsh loss and more flooding. 

“Most of the Gullah community is in their service area,” she said. “They (have been) fighting against addressing climate change rather than being a leader … The Gullah community is being directly impacted by climate change, loss of land, rising waters.” 

Hemingway said the utility should be sold. 

But Santee Cooper Manager of Corporate Communications Mollie Gore said the utility has “a pretty good track record” on protecting wetlands, and it has been responsive to renewable energy, while keeping rates low and reliability high. 

“In terms of thinking about environmental stewardship, which is bigger than climate change … we’re closing 1100 to 1200 megawatts of coal generation over the next seven years and we are adding solar power,” Gore said. “The cumulative effect of that is it will have a 43 percent reduction of carbon emissions.” 

She also cited the headwater restoration at Camp Hall in Berkeley County, where Volvo has its manufacturing plant, and wetlands restoration at the former Grainger station in Conway.

“Even before the reform plan, we pulled together a completely new resource plan that transforms the mix of resources that will be providing electricity to two million people in South Carolina,” Gore said. 

CCL wants bigger reform

Moore said the Conservation League is neutral on which entity owns or manages Santee Cooper, although the NextEra bid  is “significant for (reducing) carbon emissions.” 

But no matter the path forward, the League is pushing for bigger reforms. 

“We think (any bid for Santee Cooper) should be submitted to the Public Service Commission where interested parties can review and make suggestions,” Moore said. NextEra’s bid sought to evade PSC regulation for four years, and Santee Cooper has never come under PSC regulation.  

“We need governance and oversight regardless of who owns it,” he said. 

Leaders at the Statehouse — Gov. Henry McMaster, House Speaker Jay Lucas and Senate President Harvey Peeler — did not reply to requests for comment.

Walhalla Republican Sen. Thomas Alexander, who serves on the S.C. Floodwater Commission and chairs the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, said lawmakers are looking at the “purely business” aspect of Santee Cooper’s future. That means mostly relying on customer cost and debt. 

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