Santee Cooper approves $2M settlement in final VC Summer nuclear project lawsuit
Santee Cooper’s board approved a $2 million settlement Monday in the final lawsuit stemming from the failed V.C. Summer nuclear plant project.
Between 2014 and 2016, South Carolina’s public utility issued mini-bonds to individual investors in an effort to raise money for infrastructure projects, mainly the nuclear plant project in Fairfield County. The mini-bond sales would typically bring in $20 million to $25 million from investors into the state-owned utility, said Santee Cooper spokesperson Mollie Gore.
But in 2019, investors sued Santee Cooper, alleging the utility did not disclose issues surrounding the $9 billion nuclear project, leading to low interest rates.
In addition to the $2 million to settle, Santee Cooper will pay up to $35,000 to cover the costs of administering the class action payments, according to the agreement.
The lawsuit is the last piece of litigation related to the failed project, after Santee Cooper and what was SCE&G abandoned the project in 2017, citing budget overruns and scheduling problems.
“We’ve eliminated all nuclear litigation,” Santee Cooper’s CEO Mark Bonsall said during Monday’s board meeting. “It’s all gone.”
It still needs to be determined how many people will be eligible to receive money from the settlement, Gore said.
Though it is the final lawsuit, it certainly was not the only complaint the utility was involved in since 2017.
Last year, Santee Cooper agreed to pay $200 million toward a $520 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by ratepayers and to issue customer refunds for the nuclear project. Santee Cooper and Westinghouse, the contractor hired to carry out the project, also settled another lawsuit to stipulate how to split proceeds from sales of equipment from the nuclear project.
The latest settlement will need a federal judge’s approval, but Gore said it is another step toward putting the project behind the utility.
“It’s another milestone, another point of progress for our customers,” Gore said.
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Santee Cooper approves $2M settlement in final VC Summer nuclear project lawsuit."
