Andy Butcher brings “a breath of fresh air”

Westminster’s elected leaders met and heard from the new general manager at the PMPA—the upstate consortium of cities through which Westminster buys its electric power.  And Mayor Brian Ramey says the new man, Andy Butcher, brings “a breath of fresh air” into his city’s unsettling relationship with its long-time wholesale power supplier.  Ramey likes what Butcher has been saying and admires the PMPA’s new hire for a wide swath of experience, much it from having worked in western states such as Colorado and Wyoming.  One of the issues that Butcher inherits is a legal challenge by some municipal members of the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency.  Ramey says Westminster and Abbeville are not parties in the lawsuit, but they are mindful of the legal squabble that divides member cities Newberry, Laurens, Gaffney, and Easley against Rock Hill, Greer, Clinton, and Union.