An Open Letter to Santee Cooper Customers:
Your power company recently posted its own “open letter” to customers, so we believe it’s only fair to respond.
Let’s be clear: you’ve done nothing wrong! You all likely go about your days with no consideration of “where” your power comes from, and that’s okay.
We’re at this point because Santee Cooper’s leadership failed you. Their decision to partner with SCANA on the V.C. Summer nuclear project will cost you thousands over the next few years unless something is done.
Sadly, the V.C. Summer debacle is already costing Santee Cooper customers like you over $1 million of debt every day as interest on your power company’s $8 billion total debt.
For years, Santee Cooper has kept power rates artificially low on purpose. But they can’t keep this up forever. Your rates will have go up to cover Santee Cooper’s debt if the utility is not sold.
You don’t deserve to pay higher rates for Santee Cooper’s poor decisions. And you certainly don’t deserve to pay higher rates to support golden parachutes for high-paid executives, private resorts, and continual inside dealing.
Our state legislature can sell Santee Cooper and erase the debt, lower your power rates, and protect you and your family from paying for a hole in the ground for the next four decades. We know this because responsible, private utility companies have made such offers before the legislature, which is currently reviewing them.
Every bidder for Santee Cooper will protect the lakes, promote fishing and tourism, keep doing economic development deals, and work to expand the company’s renewable portfolio. Private energy companies also pay taxes, support local communities, and have retirement systems. These are basic functions of energy companies; the fact that Santee Cooper does economic development, for example, doesn’t make it special.
Some have asked why the S.C. Club for Growth cares so much about Santee Cooper, even making wild accusations in the Columbia echo chamber. The truth is S.C. Club for Growth and its membership have supported selling Santee Cooper from our founding, back in the mid-2000s.
Why? Santee Cooper is an example of what’s wrong with South Carolina government’s structure. It’s accountable to almost no one, save a board of directors who can set rates at any time with no regulatory oversight.
Santee Cooper is also unique in that it is one of the few state-owned energy companies in the United States. Its record on renewable energy is abysmal at a time when American renewable energy is booming. The company benefits a few high-paid insiders at the expense of ratepayers.
Under state law, Santee Cooper and its leadership should have no opinion on whether the company should be sold, but they are fighting back.
Yet Santee Cooper appears to be running statewide Facebook ads touting its supposed successes, despite directly serving just a few hundred thousand households on the South Carolina coast. And “Save Santee Cooper” Facebook groups are posting slick, professional-quality graphics to mobilize supporters.
We urge you to remain as informed as possible in this process by visiting our website, reading the news, and connecting with state legislators. Failure to act this legislative session could have real ramifications for Santee Cooper and electric cooperative ratepayers.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
S.C. Club for Growth