South Carolina Electric and Gas customers may see a rate increase on November’s utility bill.
Monday morning state utility regulators discussed a mid-year rate increase request from the Scana corp. SCE&G officials say they need the rate increase to recover money since they spent more for fuel than they expected to this year.
Gerhard Haimberger testified about the volatile stock market and the role the weakening U.S. dollar has played in rising fuel costs.
"Energy basically is sold in U.S. dollars. Our dollar tanked pretty much in the last few months,” Haimberger said.
Rose Jackson also works for Scana. Jackson says the high price of crude and gas during the summer months exceeded the company’s projections.
“Gas prices during the current period were more volatile than normal as a declining dollar value contributed to escalating crude oil prices, which in turn increased the comparative value of natural gas," said Jackson.
Now, SCE&G is requesting a six percent rate increase. The State Public Service Commission did not approve the deal Monday, but South SCE&G is hoping they make a decision before the end of October.