Feb 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ben Werner The State, Columbia, S.C.

South Carolina's utilities warn many state residents will be left in the dark if some congressional proposals designed to reduce carbon-dioxide pollution from coal-fired plants ever see the light of day.

During an information meeting with the S.C. Public Service Commission on Wednesday, officials representing the state's largest utilities and power cooperatives said nuclear power is the best long-term option for making sure the lights stay on statewide.

The utilities' presentation will help the commission develop a strategy to deal with the impending changes, chairman G. O'Neal Hamilton said.

Commission members did not say publicly whether they support or oppose building more nuclear plants, but stressed they want to make sure residents and industry would be able to continue getting affordable power.

The utilities' message to the commissioners was clear -- they have to help lower the decade-long regulatory and funding hurdles utilities must pass when building nuclear plants.

That's because Washington is now considering setting carbon-use limits to take effect soon. And cutting carbon means cutting coal use -- a major source of electricity generation in South Carolina.

So in the short term, utilities feel as if they are in a race against time.

If coal limits are put in place in the next couple of years, the only alternative many utilities -- including those in South Carolina -- will have is to buy natural gas.

This is part of a national push to encourage utilities to use alternate and renewable fuel sources to produce electricity. But as more utilities buy natural gas, prices will only increase, said Mike Couick, chief executive of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina.

"It would be like a dog chasing his tail," Couick said. "We need nuclear."

The utilities argue nuclear power will help them avoid some of the anticipated costs associated with phasing out coal under a federally run system that caps or taxes carbon releases into the air.

Utilities will either have to pay a tax on coal use or buy coal-use credits.

Limits on coal use could cause the wholesale price of electricity to increase 35 percent to 70 percent in 2015 depending on other technologies, Couick said.

"The higher the carbon price, the better nuclear looks," said Janice Hager of Duke Energy.

The utilities fear federal rules also will require a certain amount of power generation to use renewable fuel sources.

South Carolina's utilities do not have a lot of other options. Currently the available technology does not make solar, wind and thermal power generation realistic alternatives, said Robert Long of SCANA.

Under a best-case scenario, given the currently available technology, renewable energy sources could realistically generate possibly 5 percent of South Carolina's electricity needs, Long said.

"We don't have the wind of the Great Plains," Long said. "We don't have the geothermal of California."

Reach Werner at (803) 771-8509.