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VC Summer Bills at the State House: What's Their Status?

A House committee created several bills over the summer that deal with the fallout at the VC Summer Nuclear Plant. None of the bills passed during the regular session, but when lawmakers come back at the end of May, there could be some movement.

Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Lawmakers were determined to pass bills dealing with the fallout at the VC Summer Nuclear plant, but things didn't go according to plan and time ran out during the legislative session.

Still, lawmakers are optimistic they will be able to pass group of bills during the extended session.

Last summer, the House Utility Ratepayer Protection Committee met to create six bills that tackled the VC Summer Nuclear debacle.

The first bill was H.4375, which wqas designed to repeal the Base Load Review Act for future projects.

In 2007, lawmakers passed the BLRA, making it legal for utility companies to charge customers in advance of a major project. Some say SCE&G took advantage of the BLRA when building the two new reactors at VC Summer.

H. 4375 passed the House back on February 1, but it's now in a conference committee as the Senate tried to make changes that the House didn't agree with. H.4376, H.4377 and H.4378 dealt with the restructuring of the Public Service Commission and the Santee Cooper Board members.

The PSC approved the nine rate increases SCE&G asked for during the nuclear project.

These bills all passed the House, and are currently awaiting committee approval from the Senate Judiciary committee.

H.4379 had some movement — it's the bill that creates an independent utility consumer advocate group within the attorney general's office, and takes the responsibility away from the Office of Regulatory Staff. The ORS is responsible for policing utilities, but some say they haven't done enough. While the bill passed the House and Senate, there was no final approval when it returned to the House. So, it's in limbo.

Finally, S.954 would cut the current nuclear rate on SCE&G customer bills until the end of the year. The House voted to cut the entire 18 percent rate, creating zero nuclear costs. The Senate says they should only cut 13 percent. Since they can't agree, that bill is in a conference committee.

Lawmakers are planning on returning to the state house on May 23-24 and June 27-28 to discuss the budget and take up vetoes from the governor. They also plan on tackling these bills, with hopes that they will pass and the state will be on it's way recovering from he multi billion dollar nuclear mistake.

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