By admin 
The roles of House Speaker Murrell Smith and Senate President Thomas Alexander in the proposed Dominion Energy-NextEra utility merger are sparking questions about whether their efforts could unduly influence the state Public Service Commission.
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The PSC, a seven member commission chosen by the Legislature, is tasked with ensuring the $67 billion deal is in the public interest. Dominion and NextEra combining would create a huge utility, servicing 10 million customers across Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Smith and Alexander, the leaders of South Carolina’s two legislative chambers, are seeking to formally intervene in the merger proceedings, a move that is uncommon but not without precedent. So far, they’ve told the PSC they do not oppose the commission making a decision on the merger within six months, as proposed by NextEra and Dominion.
Critics of the deal say they worry about how the PSC will respond to intervention by the state’s top legislative leaders.
The General Assembly elects PSC members and a legislative committee headed by Alexander reviews the performances of commissioners each year. The Public Utilities Review Committee also screens candidates for the PSC, before names are sent to the Legislature for a vote.
Tom Ervin, a former legislator, judge and Public Service Commissioner, said the committee Alexander chairs is particularly important to PSC members. PURC members are effectively “the bosses’’ of the Public Service Commissioners, Ervin said.
Ervin said the PSC is composed of honorable people who have been potentially put in a bad position by the involvement of Smith and Alexander.
“It’s unfair to our commissioners for them to sense they are being monitored by their bosses,’’ Ervin said. “If they feel like they have to please the boss, are they going to be more likely to vary from the facts and the rules of law that apply in decision-making? It’s concerning on multiple levels.’’
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, who raised questions about the proposed merger in May, said it made sense for lawmakers to have a seat at the table, but they should not go so far as to influence the deal in a way that could be detrimental to ratepayers, he said.
“I think it makes sense for legislative leadership to be at the table to make sure that we have all the information that’s being pushed around and that we know what the discussion points are,” Massey, an Edgefield Republican, said. “That to me is not really influencing this decision. It’s just being made aware of what’s going on in real time.”
Lawmaker involvement in merger cases is not unprecedented.
In 2018, then-House Speaker Jay Lucas supported Dominion’s proposal for acquiring SCANA in PSC filings, bucking an Office of Regulatory Staff’s position, according to previous reporting from The State. Lucas said Friday his only interest was trying to protect ratepayers, who had been saddled with higher rates to pay for the failed expansion of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant.
Others concerned about the involvement of Smith and Alexander are representatives of environmental groups and the head of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce.
Bob Guild, a Sierra Club lawyer who has handled PSC cases for more than 30 years, said the correspondence from Smith and Alexander reminds him of PSC matters from long ago, when legislators actively represented power companies before the utility board.
That practice was later outlawed and Smith and Alexander are only weighing in on the schedule at this point. But Guild said it’s still unsettling.
Guild said Smith and Alexander’s involvement would “let the commission know that the people responsible for their election to commission seats have a view on the matter that supports the companies.’’
The state Public Service Commission is a quasi-judicial body that makes decisions not only on utility mergers, but power company rate increases and other utility matters in South Carolina. Unlike many boards in South Carolina, the jobs are full-time positions.
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Efforts to gain comment from Smith and Alexander were unsuccessful Friday.
Both powerful lawmakers submitted two filings each to the PSC, the most recent on Thursday as the utility board was launching its weekly business meeting. The commission delayed its decision on whether to set a schedule for deciding the case and is expected to take the matter up next week.
Lawyers for both Alexander and Smith wrote in filings that the lawmakers had an interest in representing the state’s laws, economic development interests and ratepayers.
Alexander’s lawyer wrote in a July 21 filing that the senator has interest and concern for “economic development, interstate competition, and competitive rates to the benefit of the state and its citizens.”
“Petitioner has an interest in the affordability and reliability of utility service, customer protections, future resource planning, economic development and the location and continuity of utility operations in South Carolina,” Smith’s lawyer wrote in a July 21 filing.
Lawmakers weigh in on timeline
But Alexander and Smith made it clear to commissioners they were OK with a roughly six month deadline to decide whether the merger is in the public interest, despite concerns from some environmental groups.
The legislative leaders said they did not oppose the PSC making a decision on the merger by late January, as championed by NextEra and Dominion.
Critics of the deal say the PSC needs more time to consider the proposed merger because it’s the biggest utility union to ever occur in South Carolina. NextEra is a massive power company headquartered in Florida, while Dominion is a major Virginia utility that now operates a division in South Carolina.
Not only would that give the PSC more chances to protect ratepayers with certain stipulations, but more time would allow South Carolina to learn from similar proceedings in North Carolina and Virginia. Utilities commissions in those states also must approve the merger.
Massey said he wanted utility regulators and the Office of Regulatory Staff to have enough time to ensure the deal was good for ratepayers. If the Office of Regulatory Staff, a state watchdog, believes it can be done in six months, Massey said he is okay with the timeline.
“I don’t want them to feel pressured,” Massey said.
The Office of Regulatory Staff did not object to the procedural schedule, according to a letter filed in the docket July 16.
Frank Knapp, who heads the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce, expressed reservations about the lawmaker involvement, particularly because he said the commission needs more than six months to consider the merger. It’s important for the commission to make sure the interests of ratepayers and the public are protected, Knapp said.
The Public Service Commission will have to help make sure South Carolina ratepayers get the best deal possible from the merger. Utility watchdogs and environmental groups have raised concerns the merger, which folds Dominion into NextEra, could end up raising rates for South Carolinians, despite a promised average $10 monthly discount from the power company.
Should the merger occur, it’s possible NextEra could also try to exert political influence in the State House “especially in terms of buying political favor and influence in order to design the kind of regulatory and legislative market that it prefers,” said Shelby Green, a research and communications manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog organization, in an interview last month about the merger.
In Florida, NextEra tried to gain significant political power through its subsidiary Florida Power & Light in the Sunshine State, including by allegedly supporting ghost candidates in state Senate elections, manipulating media coverage and working with a consultant that surveilled a Jacksonville journalist, according to media reports. In June, the utility company settled a civil action lawsuit for $150 million over allegations that it misled investors while navigating the public scandals.
NextEra also previously spent tens of thousands of dollars lobbying and advertising in South Carolina when the utility attempted to purchase Santee Cooper in 2020 and 2021 and later withdrew its bid. Other utilities in South Carolina also spent north of $100,000 on lobbying efforts in the State House this year, according to ethics records.
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Spokespeople for Dominion and NextEra were not available for comment Friday.