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News

Coronavirus Cases Skyrocket in SC

With the rush to reopen SC businesses, a peak in coronavirus cases has come in response. Many other states are seeing a flattening of cases during the early weeks of summer, but SC is reporting differently. The short 6-weeks of quarantine are likely the reason for this spike. 

In a recent press conference, state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell says “That today [she] is more concerned about COVID-19 in South Carolina than ever been before.” Her unease relates to the rising daily numbers since the beginning of the pandemic. Over 600 deaths have been reported in SC from coronavirus since it entered the U.S.

Will this information have an effect on businesses? If it were up to Governor Henry McMaster, things would remain likely the same. “We can’t stay closed forever,” says McMaster, though he urges residents to practice social responsibility. It seems staying healthy will likely be put on the shoulders of individuals. 

For daily reporting of coronavirus numbers, visit Events as they happen on the World Health Organization site.

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Santee Cooper South Carolina Coronavirus Funding

Santee Cooper’s Actions Caused Certain Senators To Derail Emergency Coronavirus Funding Legislation

The South Carolina Legislature was called back earlier this week for what was supposed to be a quick one-day session to pass a piece of emergency legislation that would help prevent a government shutdown and provide emergency funding to address the coronavirus crisis. But a familiar roadblock caused that plan to crumble.

While this was expected to be a quick vote, a resolution in the legislation involving Santee Cooper prevented senators from coming to an agreement, while House members decried action taken by Santee Cooper in recent days to deceive the legislature into believing they had negotiated a deal with Central Electric cooperative.

The latest move by Santee Cooper has angered many including Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina CEO, Mike Couick and Speaker of the House Jay Lucas.

Couick was quoted as saying “I grew up watching ACC basketball and Dean Smith mastering the game of four corners. If Santee Cooper is an expert at nothing else, it is an expert at delay, and delay of reform and transformation…”

In a letter to Santee Cooper’s leadership, Speaker Lucas wrote, “If state law gave me or the House of Representatives the authority, I would seek the immediate unqualified removal of each member of the Santee Cooper Board and the dismissal, for cause, of the entire senior management. Unfortunately for the people of South Carolina, I do not have that authority. However, I do predict and will applaud your ultimate removal from your positions in the appropriate manner.”

You can read the full letter from Speaker Lucas here.

The proposed emergency legislation included plans for COVID-19 funding, education funding for teacher salaries, funding to ensure South Carolina primaries can still take place safely on June 9, and other necessary government-funded operations that would allow the state to continue to run in the case that a budget isn’t passed before the start of the next fiscal year.

It also included a provision to postpone the debate on Santee Cooper and prevent the utility from engaging in any long-term contracts of more than a year until the work on what should be done with the state-owned utility is fully explored.

As reported by the AP, Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore apologized for their actions in an email calling the utility’s words ‘presumptive and premature’.

Moreover, Governor McMaster slammed Santee Cooper on Twitter, saying, “There appears to be no tactic or action too deceitful or reckless for the leaders of Santee Cooper to employ,” accusing the utility of exploiting the current pandemic to avoid a sale or any type of reform.

Senators, on the other hand, debated the resolution for over five hours only to come back with an amended resolution that sent it back to the House for review. Certain senators such as Senator Rankin and Senator Grooms refused to approve the emergency legislation needed to keep the state running because of their support for Santee Cooper and did not want to put any limitations on the utility despite their history of mismanagement and lack of transparency.

Currently, there are plans for either the House or Senate to return to take further action.

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Lawmakers Could Focus On Other Issues If A Speedy Decision Is Made On Santee Cooper

Featured Image: AP News

People from all over the country are flocking to cities across the state of South Carolina. In fact, the Upstate expects to have a population roughly the size of Charlotte’s in just 20 years.

Organizations like the Upstate Chamber Coalition are already preparing for the huge surge in population, specifically the need for new jobs, housing, modern infrastructure and an education system that can handle the influx of families.

Jason Zacher, the executive director of the Upstate Chamber Coalition, recently stopped by an event at Lee’s Barbecue in Waterloo, South Carolina to discuss the pressing topics lawmakers need to focus on for the upcoming legislative session. With the session beginning in January, Zacher brought up issues such as pension reform, import-export bank restoration, and the state-owned utility Santee Cooper.

With more pressure than ever on lawmakers to make a decision as soon as possible on the state-owned utility, Zacher went on to say “We’ve supported the sale of Santee Cooper because of the potential statewide budget impact. If we end up having to absorb the debt that Santee Cooper has, that is debt service that cannot be used for higher teacher pay, it cannot be used for infrastructure, it cannot be used for name your program that needs to be funded.”

While much of the focus has been on Santee Cooper’s almost $7 billion of debt, there are other factors to consider. The V.C. Summer project began a decade ago and started to fail several years ago. Since then, lawmakers have spent two years talking about what to do with the state-owned utility that allowed the project to go on even with knowledge it would never be functional while accumulating billions of dollars of debt.

Meanwhile, other important issues are falling to the wayside while lawmakers continue to debate the future of Santee Cooper. With the upcoming legislative session beginning in January, recommendations from the Department of Administration to the General Assembly should come by January 15 on Santee Cooper.

However, it is up to lawmakers to make sure this is a speedy process so that they can turn their focus to other issues such as the state’s failing education system and the quality of the workplace for teachers.

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Santee Cooper’s Business Forecast for the Future

Featured Image: Post and Courier

It’s been a few weeks since state-owned Santee Cooper unveiled their “long-term plan” for the future. Since then, many Santee Cooper direct serve and electric cooperative customers have been wondering, what does it all really mean?

While the plan involves positive initiatives like a transition to more renewable, cleaner energy sources such as solar and natural gas, there are no specifics to how those goals will be achieved.

Breaking down the plan even further, Santee Cooper customers and South Carolina residents have room for concern as it appears there are many unanswered questions.

In order to pay down the debt, the state-owned utility started raising rates a few years back. Now, with the debt in the spotlight more than ever, part of Santee Cooper’s plan is to freeze rates for five years. While this is promising at first glance, many Santee Cooper customers are worried that it will only prolong the inevitable.

Other than closing its Winyah coal plant by 2027 and cutting jobs (another concern for local residents) to reduce costs, the utility doesn’t specify how it plans to pay its billions of dollars of debt and make the investments needed to reach their goals.

Which begs the question – will rates increase even more than anticipated after the five-year freeze?

Additionally, the state-owned agency finds itself in a lawsuit with its largest customer, the twenty electric cooperatives, who is suing the energy provider to stop them from raising their customer’s rates even more to pay for a generating plant that will never operate.

A question that hasn’t been answered – what will happen if the cooperatives win? Will the debt fall only onto the direct serve customers? Will a state-owned agency have to file for bankruptcy?

Many questions and very few complete answers seem to plague Santee Cooper at present.

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Santee Cooper Announces Its New Plan, Leaving Many To Wonder What It Actually Means For Their Rates

Featured Image: Energy Manager Today

After making a surprise announcement that they would be unveiling elements of their reform plan to the public, state-owned Santee Cooper revealed the details this past Monday.

The plan, centered around the utilities’ move from coal to solar power and gas-fired plants, also lays out a business forecast for the debt-ridden utility. In July, Santee Cooper brought on its highly-paid CEO, Mark Bonsall, who led the transition from coal to solar at an Arizona utility company before heading to South Carolina. And news last month previously stated Santee Cooper would be phasing out coal generation and shutting half of its coal plants down. Leaving open the question – what will happen to all the employees that work at these plants?

According to the plan, the percentage of energy generated by coal will decrease to around 30 percent from the current level of 52 percent by 2033. To accomplish this, Santee Cooper will phase out its Winyah Generating Station, add utility-scale solar power while also buying smaller natural gas-fired turbines, all of which will take considerable time and resources to accomplish.

The initial plan involved a cost-sharing agreement to fund this shift with Georgia based, Southern Co., but after major backlash from lawmakers, the Governor’s office and South Carolina residents, this part of the plan was abandoned.

The board was intending to vote on the agreement with the investor-owned utility Monday, but the deal was shut down after state Department of Administration Director Marcia Adams, sent a letter on August 29 nixing the agreement and even threatening a restraining order to shut down the deal if necessary. Adams explained that entering into an agreement “with one more investor-owned utilities that include terms and arrangements that would potentially subvert the process set fort in the joint resolution.”

On September 2nd, S.C. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, widely considered the most powerful legislator in the state, strongly opposed any such agreement and sent a letter requesting Santee Cooper not enter into any agreement that would limit the General Assembly’s options. Senator Leatherman ended the letter with, “in my opinion, such actions would be grounds for board removal if the governor so chooses.” Legislators, state officials and even the co-ops argued that the arrangement would have undermined and hindered the state’s process for assessing the bids for Santee Cooper.

While a plan roll-out from the state-owned utility was expected in the context of a reform deal to be submitted to the Department of Administration and evaluated alongside the management and sale bids, this announcement leaves many South Carolina residents and Santee Cooper customers wondering, what does it even mean?

The transition to renewable and cleaner energy is the future of the energy business without a doubt but Santee Cooper outlined no way to pay for this transition or how it will alleviate customers from rate increases to pay off the $4 billion of debt from the failed V.C. Summer project.

Bonsall pointed out that Santee Cooper plans to pay off $500 million of the debt by next year without explaining how they plan to do so, and still leaving billions unpaid, left to fall onto over 2 million South Carolinians who purchase power from the state-owned utility directly or from one of the 20 Electric Co-ops.

According to The State, Bonsall said Santee Cooper is still interested in partnering with other utilities in order to pay for these transitions even though legislators, government officials and the coops believe this will undermine the plan for the General Assembly to assess bids for the state-owned utility.

So, the question still remains, what will happen to Santee Cooper and its billions of dollars of debt?

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Santee Cooper’s Largest Customer Urges They Were Powerless Throughout the V.C. Summer Project

Santee Cooper’s largest customer, the electrical coops that buy three-fifths of Santee Cooper’s power which gets distributed to their customers across the state of South Carolina, is suing the state-owned utility. While the coops are by far the agency’s largest customer, a 38-page claim filed in August works to show that Santee Cooper actively kept the problems of the V.C. Summer construction hidden from the coops.

The project left Santee Cooper billions of dollars in debt. To pay off this debt, the burden falls onto both the state-owned utilities’ direct serve and co-op customers. The 20 co-ops who purchase power from the utility are suing to stop Santee Cooper from charging their customers any more for the debt.

The coops attorney in the case explained, “The emails, letters, etc.described above tell the indisputable story of a project beset almost from the beginning with myriad fundamental, entrenched problems that led inexorably to major delays and cost overruns,” the co-ops’ attorney, Frank Ellerbe, wrote in the filing. “Yet, it was a story Santee Cooper kept largely to itself.”

The coops claim to be powerless throughout the construction process of the nuclear reactors and in turn, should not be held responsible for the debt Santee Cooper faces for their failures. While success for the coops will save millions of customers from having to pay off the debt, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered.

If Santee Cooper is blocked from increasing the coop rates, what will happen to the debt and how will it be paid?

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santee cooper discussions 2020

Department of Administration Announces Parties are Now Able to Submit Bids for Santee Cooper

The state Department of Administration recently selected four firms to explore options on the table for the debt-riddled, state-owned utility Santee Cooper. The firms, tasked with reviewing purchase and management offers and a reform proposal from Santee Cooper, will advise lawmakers as they work to decide the future of the utility.

On Friday, August 16, the Department of Administration took a step in the right direction and announced it is now inviting parties to submit bids for Santee Cooper. Moelis & Company, a New York-based investment firm, will advise the Department of Administration on the bids for Santee Cooper. The invitation can be viewed here.

On the same day, Santee Cooper approved a $5 million loan to Laurens Electric Cooperative through the economic development revolving loan program. This loan approval took place during an ongoing lawsuit between Santee Cooper and the co-ops over who is responsible to pay for the debt resulting from the failed V.C. Summer project continues.

The co-ops are suing to block Santee Cooper from charging its customers any more to pay off the $4+ billion of debt. The lawsuit would stop Santee Cooper from continuing to bill customers for the debt. Circuit Court Judge John Hayes ruled that the lawsuit would be allowed to continue on Friday.

In a 38-page claim, filed on Aug. 9, the co-ops presented a legal argument to show Santee Cooper actively kept information from its customers including construction setbacks and increased costs, in turn violating the contract and an attempt to make customers pay for a power plant that never produced electricity.

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South Carolina Lawmakers Issues Santee Cooper and Education

3 Things That Happened During South Carolina’s Three-Day Special Legislative Session

Featured Image Source: Andrew Whitaker, Post & Courier

South Carolina’s regular legislative session came to an end early last month, but lawmakers returned to the statehouse a few weeks later for a three-day special session.

Having finished their special session a day early, lawmakers met on May 21 and May 22 to discuss legislation and finalize the budget. And, of the legislation being reviewed, two major bills were up for debate, including Santee Cooper and the Carolina Panthers.

The Largest Budget In State History Was Passed

Both the House and Senate passed the largest budget in state history with a total spending package of $29.8 billion with a 105-6 and 32-8 vote, respectively. Revisions to the budget include the removal of provisos that would have added tolls along I-95 and a reduction of the “Be Pro Be Proud” program, which is a program that started in Arkansas and tours the state to give students exposure to industries. Originally $950,000 of the budget was allocated to the program before being reduced to $642,500.

Lawmakers Agreed To Explore The Sale of Santee Cooper

Lawmakers adopted a final version of the resolution which will allow the Department of Administration to oversee the process of collecting and reviewing bids for state-owned Santee Cooper. The Department will hire experts to assist it in analyzing and recommending three proposals to be passed along to lawmakers. The three proposals will consist of one purchase offer from a third-party, one management offer and a final reform proposal from Santee Cooper. While this resolution was passed, the future of Santee Cooper is still undecided and will likely be decided during the next legislative session, continuing to leave Santee Cooper direct serve and coop customers without any relief from the VC Summer debt while SCANA customers have already received some rate relief from the debt.

Carolina Panthers Receive Major Tax Breaks

According to the newly adopted Carolina Panthers resolution, the Panthers don’t have to pay state income taxes for players, coaches, or other employees for the next 15 years as long as they build their new complex near Rock Hill. Governor McMaster is hoping the Panthers’ move to South Carolina will create jobs for many South Carolinians.

South Carolina’s next regular legislative session will start back up in January 2020.

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