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Santee Cooper asks judge to weigh in on legal settlement of SC nuclear lawsuit

 By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.com,   Nov 28, 2018   COLUMBIA — Santee Cooper wants to weigh in before South Carolina Electric & Gas settles a lawsuit with its customers over the utilities’ shared nuclear project, arguing a rushed deal could harm the state-run power company and its ratepayers.

·         Attorneys for Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s only public electric utility, filed a motion in court Wednesday that could disrupt a proposed legal settlement between SCE&G and several law firms that represent the utility’s customers in ongoing class-action lawsuits.

·         That deal would allow SCE&G’s parent company, SCANA Corp., to do away with the risky litigation and help seal Dominion Energy’s proposed takeover of the Cacye-based company.

·         n return, the law firms that pushed the class-action lawsuit would pocket a portion of the settlement, which requires the utility to turn over $115 million that was previously set aside for the company’s executives and the proceeds from the sale of several properties including a plantation near Georgetown and an office in downtown Charleston.

·         Santee Cooper, which owns just under half of the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project, said SCE&G and the law firms involved in the case “attempted to stage a hurried settlement.”

·         The state-run utility has an interest in the outcome of the lawsuit because it is still considering suing SCANA, its project partner, over the unfinished nuclear reactors located just north of Columbia. SCANA was responsible for overseeing the multibillion dollar reactors for both utilities and reigning in the nuclear contactors on the project.

……… https://www.postandcourier.com/business/santee-cooper-asks-judge-to-block-settlement-of-sc-nuclear/article_ffc26b1c-f346-11e8-a5de-cbddd0454e55.html

December 1, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA