Environmentalists challenge Santee Cooper plant, rate hike

MYRTLE BEACH — As Santee Cooper’s board met monday morning in Myrtle Beach to get public feedback on a proposed rate increase, a group of local environmental activists gathered to protest both the increase and the utility’s plans for a new coal-fired power plant in Florence County.

The Pee Dee Energy Campus, Santee Cooper’s proposed 600-megawatt coal-fired generation facility, would be located on a 2,709-acre tract in Kingsburg and feature at least one coal ash pond. The facility is scheduled to become operational sometime after 2012 at a cost of about $1.25 billion to build.

“We do not want another coal plant in the state,“ said Nancy Cave, Northcoast office director of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League. “We need a new energy future.”

The group, along with others including Wildlife Action board members, said Santee Cooper’s the proposed 15-percent rate hike will go to fund the new, not-so-energy efficient or clean plant, and to pay for lawsuits leveled by the Environmental Protection Agency against the utility for Clean Air Act violations.

“That does not have anything to do with this,” Santee Cooper spokeswoman Laura Varn said of the proposed rate increase. “That was many years ago.”

The company pledges to make the Pee Dee Energy Campus the cleanest of its kind, Varn said, and said the investment in cleaner technology comes with a price tag.

“We know it is not a good time to be (raising rates),” she said. “We wish we didn’t have to. We also know that we’ve held it off as long as we could, and that’s the reason why we need the rate increase.”

The Santee Cooper board has held seven meetings so far across the state, and will make a final decision about the rate increase at its August meeting.

As for the Kingsburg plant, an appeal was filed April 13 asking the courts to rescind the air permits the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control issued to Santee Cooper in February for it.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed the appeal on behalf of the the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, Environmental Defense Fund, the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, the S.C. Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club.

Blan Holman, an attorney for the SELC, said the appeal is the next step in the process of shutting down the plans for the coal-fired facility.

The SELC claims DHEC used bad data when its gave Santee Cooper air quality permits for the plant, and burning coal will create large amounts of air pollution that will cause health problems and damage property.

A majority of S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control Board members voted in February against remanding the original air permit for the proposed coal-fired plant. The board members, despite misgivings, decided the permit was issued properly.

Gov. Mark Sanford joined the opposition to the Pee Dee Energy Campus prior to the decision of the DHEC board members.

His announcement was followed by a series of press releases agreeing with his stance on the issue. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources also sent a strongly worded letter to DHEC officials to recommend a remand of the air permit.

The permit gave Santee Cooper permission to move forward with the process in an at-tempt to build two 600-megawatt boilers on the campus.

The Army Corp of Engineers’ Environmental Impact Statement, which will determine if Santee Cooper can continue making progress in the permitting process, is expected sometime this summer.

— Morning News staff contributed to this report.