Report: Utility offered SC lawmakers deal to kill rate cut

COLUMBIA (AP) Executives offered South Carolina legislators a bigger consumer rebate for a failed multibillion-dollar nuclear project if lawmakers scrapped a law requiring reduced power bills.

WIS reports that Virginia-based Dominion Energy wanted to stop the new law cutting South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.’s electric rates by 15 percent until the end of this year.

Dominion wants to buy SCE&G’s parent company. Dominion offered customers rebates of around $1,000, a smaller rate cut and a promise not to raise prices for three years. The TV station reports that Dominion offered lawmakers a deal to increase the refunds to around $1,500 if they’d kill the rate-cut legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey tells WIS that Dominion also wanted lawmakers to express support, possibly swaying regulators considering the merger.