"SCE&G misled lawmakers about critical nuclear report,
state agency says"
"The Regulatory Staff filings support concerns by lawmakers
that SCE&G was not truthful with elected officials."
SCE&G executives misled S.C. legislators about why a
report was commissioned to investigate troubles at the failing V.C. Summer
nuclear expansion project, state regulators say.
In sworn testimony to lawmakers last fall, Kevin Marsh, then
chief executive of SCE&G and its parent company SCANA, told legislators the
Bechtel Corp. was hired to complete a study on problems at the ill-fated project
to help prepare for a possible lawsuit against Westinghouse, the project's lead
contractor.
Because the report — kept secret until after the V.C. Summer
project collapsed — was part of an anticipated lawsuit, it could remain
confidential from regulators, legislators and the public, utility officials
told legislators last fall.
However, in filings late Wednesday with the S.C. Public
Service Commission, regulators at the state Office of Regulatory Staff said the
Bechtel report was put together to assess what was going wrong with the
construction of two new nuclear reactors northwest of Columbia, not to support
a lawsuit.
"There are substantial circumstances, and previously
secret communications and documents that show the owners did not hire
Bechtel" in anticipation of a lawsuit against Westinghouse, Regulatory
Staff said in Wednesday's filing.
Matthew Richardson, an attorney for Regulatory Staff, said
in a written statement, “Documents we have discovered indicate SCE&G has
been more interested in protecting its profits than the customers.''
The Regulatory Staff filings support concerns by lawmakers
that SCE&G was not truthful with elected officials as they held public
hearings into the failure of the massive nuclear project.
The Regulatory Staff filings are part of the agency's effort
to obtain thousands of pages of SCE&G records that it says could justify
cutting power bills for 700,000-plus SCE&G customers, who still are paying
for the failed nuclear project. Among those records are documents related to
the Bechtel report. Wednesday's filings ask the PSC to force release of
SCE&G records.
“One of my biggest concerns all along was that the
utilities, SCE&G and Santee Cooper, were not being completely
straightforward with us,’’ said state Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. “They
were misleading us.’’
State Rep. Peter McCoy, R-Charleston, said the Regulatory
Staff findings reinforce concerns "that they did not want (information)
getting out under any circumstances.''
Instead, SCE&G was scrambling to protect "their
bottom dollar,' said McCoy, who — like Massey — was on a legislative committee
that investigated the nuclear debacle.
SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower disputed criticism
leveled at his company by the ORS.
"When the full story of Bechtel report is made public,
it will be clear that the assertions by ORS are invalid and misleading,''
Boomhower said in an email Wednesday night. "Because of serious legal and
regulatory limitations, we are not at liberty to debate these issues in the
public arena at this time. We look forward to the time when the complete story
will be available to everyone. ''
In Wednesday's filings, Regulatory Staff cited a memo from
the chief executive at SCE&G's junior partner in the V.C. Summer project,
the state-owned Santee Cooper utility, saying the Bechtel report
"never" was "intended to position (V.C. Summer's) owners for
litigation."
The agency also cited another memo from Santee Cooper saying
suing Westinghouse, V.C. Summer's lead contractor, would not accomplish much.
That was because SCE&G and Santee Cooper had agreed they could recover no
more than $150 million in a lawsuit unless they could prove fraud. When
abandoned last July, the decade-long V.C. Summer expansion project already had
cost far more — roughly $9 billion.
Documents released Wednesday by Regulatory Staff indicate
the Bechtel report was kept confidential at the insistence of Westinghouse.
Westinghouse wanted protection from legal liability at another nuclear
construction project that it was in charge of, the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion
effort in Georgia, records show.