Environmentalists challenge Santee Cooper plant, rate hike
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Environmentalists challenge Santee Cooper plant,...
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...
Rusty Ray/News13
Environmentalists hold a press conference to discuss concerns about Santee Cooper’s plans for the Pee Dee Energy Campus in Kingsburg as well as its proposed 15-percent rate hike, outside the utility’s board meeting in Myrtle Beach on Monday morning.
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.
Reader Reactions
Rusty… I too am a pro-nuke guy… but the whacky environmentalists killed any new ones off decades ago, and now they are beyond expensive to build.
So it really doesn’t leave us too many alternatives to reliable power except for coal… which have an abundant supply of in the US.
Hi Rusty, actually Wildlife Action was represented at the rally this morning. Thanks for the coverage.
P.S. Some one should start investigating the officials at DEHEC.
I have to wonder what is wrong with people now days. Talking about cave men. Any one that is so small minded, un-enlightened and un-informed, and is not able to understand when a company just wants to keep making money the same old way that it always has, with out regard for all that we now know about the damage that Santee Cooper has already done to are South Carolina rivers should get their heads out of the sand and start doing some serious research, as to what is really going on. I for one would much rather pay more now for safe non-polluting burning Nuclear, that will guarantee low cost energy for many, many, many, years to come. Why would any one want to pay more for coal and then keep paying cost increases every couple of years, form now until the end of time?
This company is not trying to help the consumer. They only care about short term profits. Most of us now know, that building any more of these so called dirty clean plants is the worst thing that we could do. But they are going to force it down are throats and then lock us in too paying and paying and paying, for overprice environmentally and politically incorrect coal. We will pay in more ways than most of you fools can imagine. And then you have the environmentalist that do not want anything. They would probably fine fault with wind turbines, or even solar panels, but the point is that we should not let all these closed minded people and extremist manipulate us consumers into one overpriced bad decision after another. Santee Cooper should be stopped at any price.
Let’s leave it to the environmentalists… we’d all be back in caves with only the sun to give us light. We wouldn’t be able to burn fires cause that would destroy the trees and pollute the air with smoke.
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