COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Executives of the two utilities that abandoned a nuclear power project in South Carolina are testifying before a legislative panel investigating the debacle.
Friday's meeting will open with a briefing of a February 2016 report the utilities kept secret until lawmakers threatened to subpoena it.
State-owned Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas hired Bechtel Corp. in 2015 to assess the status of construction on two new reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. The analysis found serious problems plaguing the project long before the utilities bailed July 31 after jointly spending nearly $10 billion.
Even before seeing the report, legislators questioned why the utilities didn't change course sooner. Customers have spent more than $2 billion on the project's financing through a series of rate hikes since 2009.