Nuclear plan faces scrutiny (SC)

[jpak]

Beginning Monday, state regulators will hold hearings that promise to be as combustible as the topic.

That’s when the Public Service Commission will listen to arguments on whether expanding nuclear power is the best way to meet South Carolina’s energy needs.

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Friends of the Earth, an intervenor in the case, and the Sierra Club of South Carolina, charged that the Office of Regulatory Staff offered a proposed settlement that “trounces the public interest and caves in to virtually everything sought” by the utility.

“The proposal ... is not only a clear sell-out of the public interest over the interests of SCE&G, but it also calls into question just who this agency represents,” said Tom Clements with Friends of the Earth.

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