Sympathy for Edison? That’s a Little Naive

Re “Get Edison Off Crutches” (Editorial, Aug. 22):

Prior and subsequent to Assembly Bill 1890 in 1996, Edison consistently maneuvered deregulation to its own, selfish advantage. It is nave to suggest that “Edison experts” would ever renegotiate any of Gov. Gray Davis’ long-term contracts to the benefit of ratepayers and taxpayers.

Edison was only too happy to sell its old, dilapidated, inefficient and polluting power plants for as much as two and three times book value because it meant not having to answer to their stockholders for repairs and necessary environmental remediation.

Edison sheltered the proceeds from these sales in its unregulated subsidiary, Mission Energy. The irony was that Mission owned plants in deregulated markets throughout the United States and operated them in the same manner as the “bandits” blamed for the energy crisis in California.

Edison should get itself “off crutches” like any other American company whose management has made poor decisions. Davis threatened, under eminent domain, to seize the assets of power companies that didn’t toe the line of his energy plan this past spring. Why shouldn’t Edison be forced to sell off its assets in Bankruptcy Court to pay off its debt?

Martin G. Mutsch

Seal Beach