BY SAMMY FRETWELL AND DAVID WEISSMAN
COLUMBIA, S.C.
Sen. Luke Rankin has business ties to a board member at the state-owned Santee Cooper utility. He also is a key player in the debate over whether Santee Cooper should be allowed to build a huge power plant.
As chairman of a key legislative committee, state Sen. Luke Rankin can decide what the panel discusses, guide the direction of conversations and use his position as a bully pulpit to support bills he thinks are important. This year, Rankin’s authority extends to legislation that would help the state-owned Santee Cooper power company build a large natural gas plant that some people question as risky and not the best way to meet the state’s future energy needs.
Rankin has publicly expressed support for a big gas plant, but has been less vocal about his business relationship with a Santee Cooper board member. Rankin and board member David Singleton, a long-time friend, are partners in a holding company for land they own jointly in eastern North Carolina. Their limited liability corporation was formed in 2005 when they purchased the undeveloped tract, Rankin said.
Recently, Rankin’s wife gained the Santee Cooper board member’s help in securing a free land lease from the utility for an animal shelter in the Myrtle Beach area. A state oversight panel approved the 40-year-lease Wednesday at a meeting in Columbia. Those connections are now sparking questions about whether Rankin should vote or discuss the legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs.
Lynn Teague, vice president of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, said she believes Rankin should disclose the relationship when the legislation comes up for debate.
He has publicly revealed the business relationship in state Ethics Commission forms, as well as in legislative screening transcripts, according to Rankin and public records.
But he would be wise to do more, Teague said. “I think he should recuse‘’ himself from voting, said Teague, a critic of the sweeping energy legislation that allows for the large natural gas plant. “At the very least, there certainly should be public knowledge about this.’’
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