S.C. editorial roundup: Sept. 7, 2018
Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:
The Post and Courier
Sept. 2
Disclosure of an audit over a nuclear project
"Disclose or not."
That's the question Santee Cooper officials raised in 2015 before contracting firm Bechtel finished an audit of the nuclear reactors the state-run utility was working on with project partner SCANA and its subsidiary, SCE&G.
According to an analysis of documents uncovered by Post and Courier reporters Thad Moore and Andrew Brown, Santee Cooper leaders were referring to whether the information in the report should be shared with the utility's bondholders.
Their decision, of course, was not to disclose.
We know this because the Bechtel report's existence was only revealed after construction on the two nuclear reactors had been abandoned and $9 billion had been lost. And even then it took a stern warning from Gov. Henry McMaster to make the audit public.
It's no wonder Santee Cooper and SCANA officials wanted the information kept secret. Bechtel raised serious questions about the nuclear project's viability and suggested that estimates about completion timelines and final costs were unrealistic.
Obviously, those warnings would have been of vital interest to Santee Cooper bondholders and SCANA shareholders, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of South Carolina ratepayers who kept paying part of their monthly power bills toward a doomed effort.
State regulators and watchdog staff certainly ought to have been alerted as well.
Other notes show that the final Bechtel report was "scrubbed" of the most damning portions. And Santee Cooper and SCE&G officials questioned whether the report should be provided in writing at all.
In other words, they knew that things were going badly. They feared the blowback that would result if the information went public. And they chose to keep it secret and proceed with the reactor construction as if nothing were wrong.
So far, most of the investigation related to the nuclear failure has hinged on whether SCANA acted "prudently" in spending ratepayer money on the reactors. That's the legal standard that could determine how much SCE&G customers owe in the future for the project.
But these new documents, which The Post and Courier obtained after they were handed over to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, raise even more serious questions. The revelations they contain detail activity that federal investigators will sift through for possible criminal activity.
State law enforcement also is conducting a probe.
It's possible that state regulators still would have given the nuclear project the go-ahead even after red flags were raised by the Bechtel report. Investors might not have panicked. After all, construction delays and cost overruns were well-known even if the audit's details were not.
But when given the decision to "disclose or not," Santee Cooper and SCANA officials chose to keep critical information to themselves. They remained silent while leading South Carolina into an economic disaster from which it could spend years or even decades recovering.
The Times and Democrat
Sept. 3
Does your job bring you satisfaction?
It's 6 o'clock the morning after Labor Day. Your alarm goes off. You bang around your night stand until you find it and shut it off. As you wake up, are you excited about going back to work? Or is that "Not again!" knot bulging in your stomach?
If you're thinking, "Not again!" you're not alone, though Americans' satisfaction with their work has improved in recent years.
In 2017, for the first time in more than a decade, a majority of U.S. workers were satisfied with their jobs.
According to data from the Conference Board, job satisfaction reached 50.8 percent, up from 49.6 percent in 2016 and above the 50 percent threshold for the first time since 2005.
Still, job satisfaction is far below the 61.1 percent who liked their jobs in 1987 and the 58.6 percent who said they did in 1995.
Life Coach, best-selling author and professional speaker Dr. Joey Faucette, who has coached thousands of business people, suggests asking yourself the following questions to help identify why you wake up with that "Not again!" knot in your stomach the morning after Labor Day.
- "Am I bored?" Is it the "same job, different day" for you? Do you wonder if anybody cares what you do?
- "Am I overwhelmed?" Maybe you just feel lucky to have a job, but the reality is that two other people on your team were laid off, and you have their work to do too.
- "Is my boss a psychopath?" Does your boss run "hot and cold," one day effusive about your work and the next day chewing you out for nothing?
- "Am I worried about losing my job?" The financial pressure of spending what you make creates a lot of stress, especially with the uncertainty of job security rampant in American corporations.
- "Is my significant other giving me that 'What's wrong with you?' look?" Face it, no one truly leaves work at work. Ask the one you live with, "How's my attitude?"
How do you increase your work satisfaction and move from just making a living to making a life and a living? Faucette recommends a six-step process he refers to as L.I.S.T.E.N.
The first step is to LISTEN to your life for passion.
The second step is to INVEST in your talents.
The next step is to discover your STYLE.
The fourth step of making a life and not just a living involves some outer work, specifically assessing the TERRAIN of your work environment.
The next step also involves outer work. Discovering your passion, talents and style and the terrain of your work place, you are now ready to ENGAGE the world's needs.
Find a need that your passion, talents and style meet, align the terrain accordingly, and you achieve what Faucette calls your NATURAL SWEET SPOT. Your natural sweet spot is when you are clicking instead of clanking.