Edison International : Corrects Misinformation About Clean Energy Commitment

FICTION: Utilities have delayed climate action for the last 50 years, and if you are a Southern California Edison customer, you're funding those efforts.

FACT: This comment completely ignores the industry's carbon emissions reductions. While electricity use has grown 73% since 1984, carbon emissions are just as low as they were then. Over the past 18 years, the industry has reduced carbon emissions by 36%. While Southern California Edison does earn an authorized return on its investment in the electrical system and Edison International pays dues to EEI, SCE's focus on climate equity is evident, as is the industry's important progress on reducing emissions. This commitment is especially underscored when you consider SCE's customers' bills help fund debt relief and bill discounts for qualifying customers, payment arrangements so customers can pay off their past-due balances over time, and other tools and programs that help customers save energy and manage their bills.

FICTION: SCE is leading the electric power industry backward to dirty fossil fuels.

FACT: SCE and Edison International have continuously supported the cross-sector collaboration needed to achieve California's climate goals. Through public policy engagement and strategic investments, we are advocating for and working to accelerate the economywide approach required to achieve California's climate goals.

FICTION: Electric utilities could profit from the clean energy revolution - if they would only get out of their own way.

FACT: The electric power industry is already leading the clean energy transition. Today, more than 40% of the electricity that powers homes and businesses nationwide comes from clean, carbon-free resources. In the past three years, wind and solar have made up more than 78% of new electric generation. Renewable generation surpassed coal and nuclearin the U.S. electric power sector for the first time in 2022.

FICTION: Across the country, nearly every coal plant could be shut down tomorrow, replaced with wind and solar, and it would save customers money.

FACT: SCE analyzed several approaches to meeting California's climate goals, which are more aggressive than the rest of the country. The most affordable pathway includes decarbonizing retail electricity sales, electrifying most transportation and buildings, using low-carbon fuels for hard-to-electrify applications, and using capture and storage technologies for the remaining carbon. Importantly, a small amount of natural gas generation will still be needed in 2045 for reliability and affordability.