I was surprised last week when the S.C. Business Journal published a lead-off story about Santee Cooper hiring public relations firm Rawle Murdy to promote the green image they’re trying to get across. It wasn’t breaking news. My December 26 story about S.C.’s role in the battle over the future of coal even mentioned it.

The permitting process for the Pee Dee plant has attracted hundreds of people to its public hearings, and the company has hired Charleston-based public relations firm Rawle-Murdy to help promote their “green” initiatives and boost their image. They also released an economic impact study by Francis Marion University last week that claimed the new plant would create 9,000 jobs. That number has been criticized because the study counts one person working a job for five years as five jobs, a practice that Santee Cooper says is standard. Opponents say it pads job forecasts in their favor.

But the news is the implications, if not the staggering figure they paid. Rather than rant on about it myself (when I’m drowning in two Best of Charleston sections), CleanEnergySC’s blog explained it pretty clearly.

Santee Cooper, otherwise known as the South Carolina Public Serivce Authority, is fond of pointing out that it is a “non profit” organization, “serving” the people of South Carolina.

Its also true that it is a state-sanctioned monopoly — meaning it faces no competition from other businesses, it sets its own prices, it pays no taxes, it is exempt from many laws that apply to private utilities in our state. As many conservatives in our state have pointed out, Santee Cooper’s situation is not unlike the way things are done in communist countries.

All of this raises the question, why would such an organization need to advertise?

Small business owners know that advertising can be an expensive necessity; a way to differentiate a business from competitors in a cutthroat marketplace.

But none of those conditions apply to Santee Cooper. Instead of “serving” the people of South Carolina, it is wasting their money on advertising.

And what are they advertising?

Their ill-considered coal plant idea.

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That’s right. Instead of spending money on creating the best energy efficiency program money can buy, or on renewable energy technologies, or on a public process to determine the best way to meet South Carolina’s energy needs — or even lowering residential rates — this state-sponsored organization is spending dollars trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes with misleading ad’s designed to scare us into submission.

They’re trying to buy support for this coal plant with OUR money.