The Nerve

By RICK BRUNDRETT A legislatively controlled committee violated state law in recent years by not giving the General Assembly annual performance reviews of individual S.C. Public Service Commission members, who set utility rates for residents and businesses statewide, a review by The Nerve found. Timing could be everything. Before the V.C. Summer nuclear project collapsed […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT The taxpayer tab for a global consulting firm hired last year to help a legislatively controlled study committee on the possible sale of state-owned utility Santee Cooper has grown to more than $735,000 – and it’s unclear whether that’s the final bill. Meanwhile, the S.C. Department of Administration is being tight-lipped about […]

  By RICK BRUNDRETT Since the 2017 collapse of the V.C. Summer nuclear project – which the Legislature made possible through a quietly passed law 10 years earlier – lawmakers and state utility regulators collectively have spent at least $729,000 on consultants hired to give them advice or issue reports. The total includes $379,203 this […]

Update: On 2/6/19, the Legislature in a joint session voted 99-1 to elect former longtime PSC attorney Florence Belser to the congressional District 2 PSC seat after incumbent Elliott Elam withdrew from the race. The only lawmaker who voted against Belser was Rep. Jonathon Hill, R-Anderson. By RICK BRUNDRETT After nearly a year and a […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT S.C. lawmakers have once again delayed filling a $107,822 seat on the state Public Service Commission, which routinely approved electric rate hikes for the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project. A screening hearing for PSC Seat 2, which was supposed to have been held Monday of this week, was postponed, according to a […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Element TV, which announced last week it will close its television assembly plant in Fairfield County, had to create far fewer jobs than originally promised under a $1.3 million state grant, records obtained this week by The Nerve show. The Minnesota-based company hadn’t maintained even the reduced job target as of last […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Plenty of buzz surrounded Element Electronics’ announcement five years ago that it would open a television assembly plant in Fairfield County, with then-Gov. Nikki Haley joining company officials in a live webcast from a Walmart-sponsored conference in Florida. But little information was publicly released then about the taxpayer costs of the planned […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT An incumbent state Public Service Commission member, a past commissioner and an ex-PSC attorney are among six candidates who have applied for a PSC seat in a “do-over” election imposed by lawmakers in May. The former PSC attorney, who dropped out of a May race for another PSC seat, recently moved so […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT The legislatively controlled committee that nominates candidates for full-time, six-figure seats on the S.C. Public Service Commission, which sets rates for private utility customers, has no written criteria for making its final choices. On paper, qualifying as a candidate for the seven-member PSC – which approved nine electric rate increases and signed […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT On the last day of regular session Thursday, S.C. lawmakers in an unrecorded voice vote effectively approved a “do-over” election for a state Public Service Commission seat, allowing the incumbent to stay on months after his term expires and the opportunity to decide on matters related to the controversial V.C. Summer project. […]