Energy Legislation before South Carolina General Assembly Includes Unjustified Giveaways to Nuclear Industry; in Ill-Advised Move, Elevates Role of Nuclear Advisory Council (Industry Promotional Body)
Unlearned Lesson: Current Dominion Energy Electricity Bill Includes Hidden Charge of 5.6% for Failed V.C. Summer Nuclear Reactor Construction Project, Customers on the Hook for another 15 Years
Columbia, South Carolina – The sweeping energy legislation now being discussed by the South Carolina legislature contains little-discussed and overlooked giveaways to the nuclear industry by forcing electricity customers to pay for speculative or abandoned nuclear power projects.
The nuclear handouts in the bill that mimic the rightfully maligned Baseload Review Act (BLRA), under which electricity customers were forced to pay in advance for SCE&G’s terminated reactor construction project, according to a public interest watchdog that tracked the failed V.C. Summer project since its inception. Further, the bill ignores a host of problems facing “small modular reactors” and, in an attempt to manipulate the energy market, wrongfully promotes this imaginary technology, which exists only on paper.
The legislation, H. 5118 – the “South Carolina Ten Year Energy Transformation Act” – includes anti-customer provisions that allow a utility to recover costs for research and planning for a nuclear project, even if no application to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for their consideration has been made. The bill also allows for reimbursement for nuclear projects even if they are cancelled, if the Public Service Commission determines that such cost recovery from customers is “reasonable and prudent,” the definition of which is undefined.
Tom Clements, director of the public-interest group Savannah River Site Watch and representative of the environmental group Friends of the Earth in that group’s intervention between 2008 and 2019 before the PSC on the failed V.C. Summer nuclear reactor construction project, said “Though the track record of new nuclear projects in South Carolina has been abysmal over the past two decades and have not meet our energy needs, special interests are at it again and want to stiff electricity customers with the costs of speculative nuclear power projects even if they fail. The ill-conceived nuclear provisions in the bill make it radioactive and it should be rejected,” said Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch, based in Columbia.
>> full SRS Watch news release, March 25, 2024: SRS Watch news energy bill March 25 2024
>> news release posted on EIN Presswire, March 26, 2024: https://world.einnews.com/pr_news/698915939/south-carolina-nuclear-bailout-legislation-backs-speculative-ill-advised-nuclear-projects-following-vc-summer-debacle
A document from South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS), showing that Dominion customers in South Carolina were paying 5.6% of their bill as of January 1, 2024 on the terminated V.C. Summer nuclear reactor project: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/SCEG-Rate-8-History-rcvd-Feb-24-2024.pdf
In the above document, see box in lower right titled “Bill Makeup.” See “BLRA” – Baseload Review Act, the law passed by the South Carolina legislature to force ratepayers to pay in advance for nuclear construction projects. The average Dominion residential monthly bill was $8.20 or 5.6% of the bill for the VC Summer debacle.
In July 2025, SRS Watch filed a new FOIA request seeking a more recent document from ORS. A document obtained revealed that as of August 1, 2025 that an “average” Dominion residential customer is paying 5.22% of the monthly bill, or $8.20, for the failed nuclear project. See: DESC-SCE&G Rate 8 History
See box in lower right marked “Bill Makeup” and see BLRA amount.
Photo: V.C. Summer site, Jenkinsville, SC, with failed nuclear construction project in the foreground; photo by High Flyer
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article of April 5, 2024: “Here’s how much SC power customers are still paying for a failed nuclear project” – good to see this but the article fails to mention that SRS Watch is the source of the information obtained from the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) via a FOIA request – poor journalism, we’d say! – but the linked document is to the SRS Watch website: https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/heres-how-much-sc-power-customers-are-still-paying-failed-nuclear-project