SCANA subsidiary sues South Carolina over $365M rate cut

SOUTH CAROLINA — S.C. Electric & Gas Co. wants a federal judge to stop South Carolina from enforcing a new law rolling back more than $365 million in rate hikes related to the abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear plant expansion.

The utility, a subsidiary of SCANA Corp., filed Monday for a preliminary injunction to prevent S.C. regulators from cutting SCE&G’s rates by 15% under a law passed last week by the S.C. General Assembly. It cuts about $37 million a month from what the utility charges customers to pay for money already spent on the abandoned project.

The company says the law is unconstitutional, confiscates money it is entitled to under years of rate-making decisions without due process and could threaten its proposed $7.9 billion acquisition by Virginia-based Dominion Energy Inc. The deal is worth $14.6 billion, including the debt Dominion agreed to assume.