utilities

Lawmakers in North Carolina and South Carolina are proposing new legislation to improve security around electrical substations and increase the penalties for damaging utility equipment.

Santee Cooper leaders say increasing fuel costs have led the state-owned utility to cut $100 million from its budget. Santee Cooper can't increase electricity rates on its customers for three more years after its role in the failed building of two nuclear reactors. The utility says it is still trying to identify exactly where the cuts will be made, but doesn't anticipate layoffs or job cuts. Officials at Monday's Santee Cooper board meeting suggested taking $30 million from operating and maintenance and $70 million from capital projects. The utility says fuel costs have increased $130 million.

The South Carolina House is insisting the state continue to accept offers to sell Santee Cooper, meaning the fate of a bill to overhaul the state-owned utility will go down to the wire at this year's session.

It was two years ago this week that the state saw the largest business failure in its' history, the collapse of the giant V.C. Summer nuclear project in…