MYRTLE BEACH – Local residents will have a chance to get their questions answered about the potential sale of Santee Cooper on Monday night.
A town hall meeting will be held in Myrtle Beach from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Chapin Library, 400 14th Ave N.
Santee Cooper is the state’s financially-troubled agency that provides electricity to much of the state. After a failed nuclear deal with SCE&G that ended with Santee Cooper losing $4 billion, the legislature approved Dominion’s purchase of SCE&G. Now, the House and Senate have bills that would allow Santee Cooper to be sold.
Some lawmakers say legislators are basically wanting to sell Santee Cooper without enough information.
“When you just roll it up in one resolution and throw it out there and say ‘sell it and then we’ll figure out later,’ that is the worst possible policy of the general assembly can ever enact,” said State Senator Larry Grooms earlier this month.
The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce and other co-sponsors are holding town halls across much of the state.
The SCSBCC is advocating for the sale of the utility to the private sector to eliminate up to $8 billion of the agency’s debt and to close its coal plants in favor of renewable and less-carbon polluting generation.