Lawmakers want certainty on rates if Santee Cooper is sold

Lawmakers want certainty on rates if Santee Cooper is sold: COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Several lawmakers on a special panel considering whether South Carolina should sell its state-owned utility told a consultant Wednesday they need as many details as possible on the 15 bids. The proposals are all confidential as consultant ICF helps the state sort through deals to turn Santee Cooper over to private ownership. The utility was created during the Great Depression to bring power and therefore business to South Carolina's disadvantaged Lowcountry. But the utility is now $8 billion in debt, much of it from a minority partnership in two nuclear plants that were abandoned without generating a watt of power in 2017 after a decade worth of design and construction.