Santee Cooper employees plead with SC lawmakers: Don't sell the embattled utility
COLUMBIA — As S.C. senators debate the fate of Santee Cooper this week, the South Carolinians who could be most affected by the state-owned utility’s sale will be listening in just a few steps away.
A small but vocal group of Santee Cooper employees and retirees have built a presence at the Statehouse over the past two weeks, taking vacation days and spending their own money on gas and materials to persuade lawmakers not to sell the 85-year-old utility.
Wearing stickers that read “Save Santee Cooper” and “Reform, Don’t Sell,” they have sat in on Senate hearings and floor debates, hoping to put a human face on a utility scarred by its $4 billion role in the failed V.C. Summer nuclear plant construction project.
“This is our company. We’re South Carolinians,” said Dean Smith, an energy efficiency adviser who has worked out of Santee Cooper’s Moncks Corner headquarters for 17 years. “We need to let people know that even though we have hit a roadblock with the V.C. Summer debt, we can come through it and be better on the other side.”
Read more: https://www.independentmail.com/story/news/2019/04/25/santee-cooper-employees-plead-sc-lawmakers-dont-sell-utility/3572730002/