A South Carolina county has voted to sue one of the utilities that abandoned construction on two nuclear reactors, calling the company decision a breach of contract.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reported that the Fairfield County Council voted Tuesday to sue SCANA Corp. over the cancellation of the reactors in Jenkinsville, about 25 miles northwest of Columbia.
Customers of SCANA’s South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. have paid higher rates since 2009 for the project. Currently, 18 percent, or $27 a month of the typical residential customer’s bill, goes to pay for the project. The company said earlier this month it wants to reduce those rates by 3.5 percent, or about $5 a month.
The county council said SCANA’s decision to abandon the project violated a contract offering special tax treatment for the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station.
Council members said they had borrowed $24 million, in part, for infrastructure improvements, expecting to get $80 million a year from SCANA. The utility already is the biggest taxpayer in Fairfield County because of the existing reactor at the nuclear station that opened in the mid-1980s.