Dear Fellow Conservative,

2021 could be a pivotal year for energy reform in South Carolina. Here’s why:

Voters spoke LOUDLY for conservative policies in the 2020 general elections by voting in five new Republican state senators and countless other conservatives down ballot. Voters want action!

One conservative action SC Club for Growth has been pushing for years now is to get South Carolina OUT of the electric energy business. Selling Santee Cooper would have a lasting, positive impact on Santee Cooper customers, and potentially our entire state’s fiscal health.

You might think our neighbors in the Lowcountry are the only ones paying the price for the bad business decisions made by bureaucrats who operate the state-owned utility, the infamous Santee Cooper.
But Santee Cooper provides electricity to electric co-ops throughout South Carolina, and those costs are passed along. Other utilities across the state are highly regulated and closely monitored by executives and shareholders.

Santee Cooper customers (our fellow South Carolinians) don’t have a choice. They’re being forced to cover the debt incurred by bureaucrats on their power bill. Here’s the kicker, even though the customers have a surcharge on their bill every month to pay down the billions of debt from the failed nuclear project, it’s been reported that Santee Cooper is still $7 billion in debt, and will be underfunded to the tune of $525 million dollars over the next several years.

Bear in mind, Santee Cooper is a state agency—similar to the DMV or the Department of Education, meaning Santee Cooper isn’t just a Lowcountry problem. Santee Cooper is a South Carolina problem. Here’s how:

Santee Cooper is a huge liability on the state. The state-owned utility already had $7 billion in debt before COVID. COVID hit Santee Cooper hard.
Customers are unable to pay their bills and usage is down due to businesses and schools not operating as normal. They’re expected to lose $24 million this year alone due to the virus. Santee Cooper doesn’t have shareholders to assume the debt or absorb the lack of revenue in these crazy times.

But guess who they do have? Their first recourse will always be Santee Cooper and co-op customers. But if they can’t foot the bill and Santee Cooper fails, the burden is likely to fall on South Carolina taxpayers. Remember, a state agency falls on the state. If Santee Cooper fails and the state has to bail it out, taxpayers pay the price.

Not only does Santee Cooper put our state’s financial health at risk, Santee Cooper has consumed Statehouse time for far too long. It’s dominated the General Assembly’s schedule for going on four consecutive sessions.
Reforms to our broken education system and our tax code that cripples businesses and families alike have fallen to the wayside because of the countless hours of debate and legislative manpower that our lawmakers have poured into a debt ridden, state-owned utility.

All while there, is a willing buyer willing take on the debt and pay the state a fair market value for the utility. You read that correctly, there is a company willing to buy the utility and remove the debt from the customers’ tabs, yet here we are still talking about South Carolina owning and keeping a utility in the year 2020.

That can change in 2021. Tell your State Legislators to take action to SELL Santee Cooper in next year’s legislative session.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

Evan Newman
Executive Director
SC Club for Growth