NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum faced South Carolina legislators on Thursday in his first public hearing as the Florida-based electric utility giant seeks to merge with Dominion Energy in a $67 billion deal.
Ketchum vowed to prioritize rate affordability for South Carolina electric ratepayers, about 800,000 of whom are still paying off debt connected to the abandonment of two unfinished nuclear reactors at the VC Summer plant in Fairfield County.
NextEra views "ourselves as an economic development partner," Ketchum testified, telling lawmakers the merger could help drive indirect investment and job growth in the state that, he noted, could become more energy independent, no longer relying on imports from other states in times of need.
For more than 2 hours, the Legislature's utility oversight committee — the Public Utilities Review Committee — peppered Ketchum with pointed questions about the proposed deal:
- Will South Carolina be treated well, they asked?
- Will the merger bring more white-collar jobs that the state lost after the demise of South Carolina-based utility SCANA in 2017, they wondered?
- Does the NextEra culture that was at the center of a $150 million settlement over political activities in Florida still exist, one senator asked?
"NextEra, culturally, has had a problem doing what they say they will do," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin, an Horry Republican, whose committee in 2020 sought to investigate NextEra as it tried to buy state-owned utility Santee Cooper.
Ketchum, CEO and chairman since 2022, sought to reassure the panel's members that utility rates will stay affordable and that the company's culture had changed under his direction.
To show the company's local emphasis, he even proposed reclaiming an abandoned but familiar name for the new state subsidiary, South Carolina Electricity and Gas.
And, Ketchum said, it would be run by another familiar name: Keller Kissam, president of Dominion Energy South Carolina.
"If we can't get affordability right, and we can't get reliability right, we're done. Right? We're done," Ketchum said. "Conversation over."
Critics have voiced concerns that the deal is moving too fast, expressing skepticism that customers won't be shouldered with higher rates.
On the oversight committee, lawmakers questioned Ketchum whether South Carolina ratepayers would actually get a good deal in the end, criticizing comments they said were made by a NextEra lawyer that described South Carolina as a small part of the deal by characterizing the state as the "tail" of a "dog."
"I've got to tell you, that comment to some highlighted concerns about how South Carolina would be treated in this merger," said Senate President Thomas Alexander, the powerful Oconee Republican who chairs the oversight committee. "I was concerned by that statement personally."
That "could not be farther from the truth," Ketchum said. "Very unfortunate that was said."
"(The) opportunity we see here in South Carolina is substantial," Ketchum added, mentioning in part future work with Santee Cooper and in data center growth.
The proposed merger was approved by both companies' shareholders last month.
It still requires a final OK by regulators in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, which will begin public hearings in the next month.
The state's regulatory body, the Public Service Commission, will hold a formal case hearing on Dec. 8, with a final vote on the proposed merger scheduled in January.
