COLUMBIA, SC

Santee Cooper is spending more than ever on a pair of new executives to turn around the state-owned utility that lost $4 billion of its customers’ money on a failed nuclear power plant construction project.

And, minutes after being hired, new CEO Mark Bonsall described the legislative push to sell Santee Cooper as a “suboptimal and uninformed solution,” vowing to find ways to reform the agency from within.

The state agency’s board on Tuesday approved paying Bonsall, a 66-year-old retired public power utility executive from Arizona, at least $1.65 million over the next 18 months, plus at least $250,000 in bonus pay for meeting a series of goals that the board hasn’t set yet.

Santee Cooper also hired one of Bonsall’s former deputies at the Tempe-based Salt River Project as a senior executive to develop the utility’s long-term strategy. Charlie Duckworth will be paid at least $840,000 over the next 18 months, plus at least $165,000 in possible bonus pay.

https://www.thestate.com/news/politi...232440654.html