Both Sides Use Power of the Pen in the Hope of Swaying Regulators : Merger: PUC has been inundated with letters from big-name and grass-roots petitioners.

Southern California Edison Corp. is hoping that, when its friends talk about its planned merger with San Diego Gas & Electric Co., the state Public Utilities Commission will listen.

In recent weeks, Edison has solicited highly visible civic and business leaders to inundate commissioners with letters in support of the deal, which would create the nation’s largest investor-owned utility, with 5.1 million customers.

Among the more than 400 letter writers taking part in Edison’s blitz are Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono, state Senate Minority Whip Newton R. Russell, Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young, and Jess D. Haro, former chairman of the Chicano Federation of San Diego County.

The letters, which become part of the public record upon receipt by commissioners, unfailingly describe Rosemead-based Edison as a solid citizen and a good neighbor.

But Edison isn’t the only party employing a letter-writing campaign.

Michael Shames, executive director of Utility Consumers Action Network, has petitioned UCAN’s 53,000 members to swamp the PUC with letters objecting to the merger, which would allow Edison to swallow SDG&E.; UCAN’s effort has generated slightly more than 1,600 letters, which demand that the regulatory agency prohibit the massive merger.

Both sides are hoping the letter writing will bear fruit when the PUC, which last week ended its two-year review of the merger, casts its final vote on the plan, perhaps as early as April 10.

Commissioners are sworn to uphold the public good when they vote on the merger, but Shames said public pressure--when properly applied--does influence regulatory decision-making.

Shames suggested that state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren intervened in the merger case only after Edison pressed for a review of the controversial opinion of his prede cessor, John Van de Kamp, issued on a key section of the state law that governs utility mergers.

“It appears that public pressure had an impact on Dan Lungren,” Shames said.

Although Edison has drawn support from throughout California, all but a handful of the anti-merger letters received by the PUC have been written by San Diegans, said Dorothy Taylor, a Los Angeles-based PUC staff member who serves as a liaison between utility customers and the commission.

“We didn’t get any kind of response from Edison’s service territory,” which includes 4 million customers, Taylor said.

Although merger opponents are ahead in numbers, Shames conceded that Edison is ahead on big names.

“Edison has big guns,” Shames said. “We anticipated seeing the Guns of Navarone, and we ended up getting the Persian Gulf guns. . . . About the only (well-known) person they don’t have is President Bush.”

But Shames says Edison’s letter-writing effort will backfire because “the only thing they don’t have is grass-roots support. They haven’t even tried to go with that angle.”

With the exception of the city and county of San Diego, UCAN has mustered little support among government officials. The San Diego City Council has spent more than $6 million to oppose the merger, and the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District has opposed the merger application on the grounds that it would worsen air quality in Southern California.

But UCAN failed in recent attempts to gain support from city councils in El Cajon and La Mesa. “El Cajon decided to pass on the issue . . . and La Mesa was deadlocked 2-2 on opposing it,” Shames said. “The fifth (La Mesa) board member was out sick.”

The surge of letters in recent weeks surprised some PUC staff members.

With the exception of the debate surrounding nuclear power plant construction there usually isn’t this kind of interest in PUC issues, Shames said.