The Latest: Utility sale could leave taxpayers with $4B bill

The Latest on two utilities' decision to abandon construction on a nuclear project in South Carolina (all times local):

6 p.m.

Selling South Carolina's state-owned utility could force taxpayers to cover its $4 billion in debt from a now-abandoned nuclear project.

Santee Cooper board Chairman Leighton Lord told senators Tuesday that the scuttled expansion of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station accounts for half the utility's total debt of $8 billion. He says that even if they can find a buyer, no company would be willing to acquire that debt, meaning the state would have to pay it.

Utility executives testified before a Senate panel investigating their decision to abandon the joint project with South Carolina Electric & Gas. Separately, the privately-owned SCE&G hopes to recoup its $5 billion in debt through customer charges and other sources.

Gov. Henry McMaster has said he's talking with other utilities about the possibility of buying out Santee Cooper's 45 percent share, or even buying the state-owned utility outright, as a way to complete at least one of the reactors under construction.

Lord says he knows of no utility willing to buy Santee Cooper and complete the project.

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2:30 p.m.

The chief executive of a South Carolina utility who left a Senate meeting in severe pain before his scheduled testimony has been treated for kidney stones.

SCANA spokeswoman Rhonda O'Banion said CEO Kevin Marsh is being released from a hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Marsh left a legislative meeting hours earlier, before his planned testimony to senators who are investigating a now-abandoned nuclear project north of Columbia.

Chief financial officer Jimmy Addison told senators he was giving the planned presentation because Marsh had a medical emergency.

Marsh is CEO of the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas.

SCE&G and state-owned Santee Cooper decided July 31 to abandon two partly built nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station after jointly spending nearly $10 billion.

Both legislative chambers have created committees to investigate the decision. Tuesday's meeting was the Senate panel's first. Addison was the first utility executive to speak.

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1:30 p.m.

The chief executive of a utility has been taken to the hospital ahead of his planned testimony to senators who are investigating a now-abandoned nuclear project in South Carolina.

SCANA chief financial officer Jimmy Addison told a Senate panel on Tuesday that CEO Kevin Marsh couldn't give his prepared presentation because he had a medical emergency and was taken to the hospital. Addison did not give specifics about Marsh's condition but said tests are being conducted. Marsh was sitting in the meeting room earlier Tuesday but left mid-way through the agenda.

Marsh is CEO of the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas.

SCE&G and state-owned Santee Cooper decided July 31 to abandon two partly built nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station north of Columbia after jointly spending $10 billion, much of that paid by customers.

Both chambers have created committees to investigate the decision. Tuesday's meeting was the Senate panel's first. Addison was the first utility executive to speak. A House panel meets Wednesday for the first time.

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8 a.m.

The state-owned utility Santee Cooper in South Carolina says it's heard from two companies interested in its share of a now-abandoned nuclear project, but neither company has made a firm offer.

Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter told The Post and Courier of Charleston he doesn't think either company will join the project.

Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. announced July 31 they were abandoning plans for two new nuclear reactors in Fairfield County they had been working on for nearly a decade and spent about $9 billion.

Carter said two interested parties emerged after he sent a letter to dozens of power companies earlier this month. Carter says neither response is viable because neither company has the assets to undertake the multi-billion project. He didn't name the companies.

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com