The South Carolina Public Service Commission ruled Jan. 14 that South Carolina Electric & Gas representatives withheld “material, and even potentially decisive, information” from state officials during their management of the now-abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear project. The finding comes one month after the PSC approved Dominion Energy’s purchase of SCANA Corp., the parent company of SCE&G.
In what the PSC called a “clear and unequivocal finding,” the commission found SCE&G acted “imprudently by not disclosing material, and even potentially decisive, information to ORS (Office of Regulatory Staff) and the Commission.” Additionally, “Due to the lack of transparency—the lack of forthrightness—with regard to reports and studies available to the Company, this Commission was effectively denied the opportunity to fully consider the prudency of continuing to expend resources on the project with all information available at the time. Under any definition of the term prudence, the Company was imprudent in its actions in this case with regard to costs incurred after March 12, 2015.”