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Study says coal-fired plants would cause rate hike

April 22, 2009 By

The Coastal Conservation League has released a study indicating that utility customers of Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned utility, can expect higher rates if proposed coal-fired plants are constructed.

Report author David Schlissel with Synapse Energy Economics in Cambridge, MA., says the Pee Dee Plant is too risky, and its pollution would be out of line with  future federal regulations, which would mean higher-priced electricity.   “What we found from Santee Cooper’s own modeling is that if it builds both of the plants it wants to build at the Pee Dee River, it’s CO2 emissions will grow substantially by the year 2024, which is the last year they gave us information for.”
Schlissel says the poor state of the economy has shown the utility’s projections of future power needs to be too high.  Governor Mark Sanford, as well as the Department of Natural Resources and members of the Department of Health and Environmental Control board have all expressed misgivings about the proposed plant. 

Schlissel says that over the next 15 years congress will likely reduce allowable carbon emissions between 14 and 20 percent,while Santee Cooper’s carbon dioxide emissions will increase.  He says the federal government will expect utilities to pay extra for polluting emissions. ”In other words, if they build a new cold plant, Santee’s Co2 emissions will go up, while the federal government is requiring generators to reduce their CO2 emissions, cleary going in the wrong direction.”
Add to that factor the cost of coal.  The Coastal Conservation League’s North Coast Office Director Nancy Cave says every South Carolina power provider, including Santee Cooper, has mentioned plans to raise rates as a result of rising coal prices. 

Laura Varn is Vice-President of Communications for the utility. She says the utility simply needs the new generators to meet energy requirements.  “We think the report is Monday morning quarterbacking.  We don’t have the luxury to work with the short-term or the hypothetical when it comes to energy needs.  Santee Cooper had to make critical decisions two years ago that affect the growing energy needs of this state.  We stand by those decisions, frequently evaluate them and report back to the board on those.”

Varn says the reasons for her board’s decision are clear and the plans for the plant are within existing guidelines.   “What I can tell you is this.  The need for the plant is real.  It is the most economical decision, and it meets or does better than all state or federal standards.  But we are disappointed that the Coastal Conservation League didn’t honor their agreement to let us review the report before it went public.”

Schlissel says exactly how much more one or both of the proposed plants would cost consumers is not certain.  That will be the subject of the Coastal Conservation League’s next study.

Filed Under: Business, Environment & Conservation, News

Claflin and USC enter into partnership

April 22, 2009 By

The University of South Carolina’s Department of Public Health has entered into a partnership with  private college, Claflin University, for a dual degree program. Students will be given the opportunity to earn both their bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Public Health over a five year period.

They would earn their bachelor’s from Claflin and their master’s from USC. Dr.  Saundra Glover of USC and the Department of Public Health says this will be a very competitive program where students will begin taking graduate courses in their fourth year of college, and in some cases, as early as their third year. She says the program aims to draw more minorities to the public health field.

“We’ve been working on this for several years, in partnership with Claflin, through our Center of Excellence in cancer and HIV that is funded the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Insititute of Health,” she says.

“One of the specific aims of that funding was to increase the number of minorty public health professionals and health service researchers addressing health disparities. So this program will allow us to develop the pool of minorty researchers that we can draw upon.”

Glover says the program begins in 2009 and will likely be a conservative amount of students to ensure its success. “We would says we are going to be very conservative and err on the side of in the teens–probably 15 students in the first year–could be more than that,”  says Glover. “But certainly we would want to make sure that we work one-on-one with each student to make sure they are successful in this inaugural program.”

Glover says the program is encouraging and would like to see it become a model for future programs saying, ” we would hope this is a model–that this would be a model that others would begin to replicate–that is would spread beyond the borders of Claflin and the University of South Carolina and others would look at this as an opportunity to build, particularly, the research capacity in minority communities.”

Filed Under: Education, News

State Supreme Court says lawsuit premature

April 22, 2009 By

The South Carolina Supreme Court will not hear the lawsuit brought by Chapin High School senior Casey Edwards involving the tug of war between Governor Mark Sanford and the General Assembly over stimulus money that would be used for public education.

Edwards sought a ruling on the question that the General Assembly has the legal right to appropriate $700 million in stimulus funds over the objection of the Governor. Sanford has declined to take the stimulus money unless he can use it to pay down state debt or get a compromise from the General Assembly in the State Budget to pay down a significant amount of state debt.

The State Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday saying the Chapin High School student’s lawsuit is premature, thus agreeing with of South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster.

McMaster says “Because the legislature has not appropriated anything yet that is one reason that we say that the case is premature, that it has a number of weeks in which to appropriate it (stimulus funds) if it wanted to. That is why we are saying that it is premature.”

In its order the court said lawmakers have not done all they can to force the Governor’s hand. The court said until then, there is not a controversy on which it can make a decision.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government

New park trail a culmination of interstate cooperation

April 22, 2009 By

A project between North and South Carolina that has been in the works for many years will culminate in a celebration this Saturday, April 25.  A new trail between Crowders Mountain Park in North Carolina and Kings Mountain Park in the Upstate will officially open at a dedication ceremony scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday morning.

The new Ridgeline trail is 8.5 miles long beginning in the Tar Heel state and ending in South Carolina. It is innovative because trails seldom, if ever, cross state lines.

South Carolina State Parks Spokesman, Marion Edmonds, says the completion of this project is a model of cooperation. “Usually, they (park trails) end at state lines because of bureaucracy more than anything else,” said Edmonds.

“You have to work with your state governments, your local governments–you have federal and state grants that have to be done for recreational purposes–so to get everybody together and make sure everybody is in sync on this, really required the two states to sit down and work with the feds, and really, work on it for years and years.”

Edmonds is encouraged by the project and expects more joint ventures in the future. “Well, we like to think it represents an opportunity for North Carolina and South Carolina to sort of get our feet wet working with each other because we share a lot of boundary,” he said, “and lot of important recreational areas as we move west in North Carolina and South Carolina so hopefully this will get us familiar with how the procedures can work. This will be just the first of several opportunities to work together.”

Edmonds says the trail also covers a historic part of both states.

“The area, of course this trail is going to be covering relates to the American Revolution and the battle at King’s Mountain. Part of the South Carolina trail involves areas that were part of the civilian conservation corps. That goes back to the Great Depression. And really, if you want to take it all the way back, the boundary line between the two took almost 70 years back in the 1700s to settle by the London Board of Trade as to where the North and South Carolina boundary would be.”

Park supporters have been invited to the event which will be held near North Carolina’s new Boulders Access contact station on Van Dyke Road between the parks.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Human Interest, News

Surgeon General: childhood obesity a state, national problem

April 22, 2009 By

The acting U.S. Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Steven Galson spent Wednesday in South Carolina to address the problem of childhood obesity.

More than a third of the state’s high school students are overweight or obese, giving South Carolina the dubious distinction of being fourth in the nation for this health problem, and the worst in the nation for the number of children who do not participate in after-school team sports or lessons.

Dr. Galson says its a problem in South Carolina and every single state in the country. “It’s a problem in every socio-economic group,  it’s not just a problem with rural folks in the U.S., it’s an urban and suburban problem, it’s a problem everywhere. But South Carolina is too high up on the list.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Health & Medicine, News
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