SC utilities’ duties
Editorial writer Cindi Ross Scoppe’s recent column critiquing utility companies’ attempts to charge customers upfront for unbuilt power plants is compelling, and her skepticism is well-founded.
Unlike businesses such as restaurants, car manufacturers and farmers, utility companies face no competition.
State laws mandate that customers buy electricity from their assigned provider, creating a captive market. This dynamic gives utilities an unfair advantage, ensuring guaranteed profits without the usual financial risks other industries face. This underscores the need for regulatory changes to level the playing field.
The proposal for “capital cost tracking,” which allows utilities to charge customers during plant construction, is particularly concerning.
History has shown the dangers of this model, notably with the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project, where billions were spent on a plant that never produced electricity.
Ratepayers continue to shoulder the costs of that failure, an unambiguous and direct result of incentivizing delays and cost overruns. Allowing utilities to charge upfront encourages similar inefficiencies, transferring the financial burden onto consumers who have no choice but to pay.
By shielding utilities from risk, this system undermines the principle of accountability that other industries operate under.
If a restaurant fails to attract customers, it bears the loss. In contrast, utilities under the proposed system would profit even if their projects fail.
Ms. Scoppe rightly argues that this arrangement would be unjust, placing undue financial strain on consumers while absolving utilities of responsibility for prudent management.
J.E. WALKER
Johns Island
Legislative failures
The presidential election and the local sales tax referendum are receiving the most attention, but as Election Day approaches, South Carolinians should keep in mind the long list of truly awful decisions made by the General Assembly in recent sessions.
The Legislature has:
• Refused to consolidate health agencies to provide better, more efficient care.
• Refused to pass a hate crimes bill or take steps that would hold private schools receiving public money to the kind of performance standards applied to public schools.
• Failed to close loopholes in the DUI law despite South Carolina having among the highest traffic deaths per capita.
• Killed a bill that would address scandalous predatory lending practices.
• Once again refused to expand Medicaid, even though the federal government will pay more than 90% of the cost.
The record of what the Legislature did is just as bad: banning gender-affirming care and allowing anyone over age 18 without a criminal record to carry a handgun — openly or concealed — without training or a permit.
And of course, the state treasurer lost track of $1.8 billion. We learned about this the year after the state’s comptroller general resigned after a $3.5 billion financial error was revealed. And the Legislature allowed SCE&G and Santee Cooper to squander $9 billion on a nuclear plant that never opened.
Changing this appalling record would require what does not come naturally to most South Carolinians: voting Democrat. That’s because every single one of the recent decisions was the result of an overwhelming Republican majority that controls state government.
PHILIP JOS
Charleston
Be ready to vote
For those who have ever gone to vote only to discover their registration was inactive or they were unfamiliar with many candidates or issues on the ballot, there is an easy solution.
The nonpartisan League of Women Voters’ website, vote411.org, offers information so voters can make informed choices.
At vote411.org, residents can enter their address and will be taken to a page that gives them candidate statements of their positions in their own words, unedited.
Visitors to the website also can see the wording and a clear, unbiased explanation of each referendum or constitutional amendment on their ballot. It’s tailored to each person’s address, so only that precinct’s candidates and ballot issues will be shown.
Residents also can use this site to register, find their polling location and check their registration to be sure that moving, skipping an election or another problem hasn’t taken them off the active voter list.
NANCY KREML
Columbia
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