SoCal Edison, SDG&E; Scrap Plan to Merge : Utilities: The decision follows a PUC vote to prohibit the merger on anti-competitive grounds. Opponents of the merger plan are celebrating.

By GREG JOHNSON

May 17, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Southern California Edison on Thursday abandoned its hard-fought but ill-fated plan to merge with San Diego Gas & Electric and create the nation’s largest electric utility with 5.1 million customers.

The decision came just eight days after the state Public Utilities Commission voted 5 to 0 to prohibit the merger on anti-competitive grounds. Commissioners, in a stinging report, scored the utilities for their failure to prove that the merger would produce long-term benefits for utility customers in Southern California.

John Bryson, chairman of Edison parent SCEcorp, said in a terse statement issued Thursday afternoon that the two utilities’ boards of directors had terminated the merger agreement and withdrawn their applications from state and federal regulatory agencies. “It’s time to put the merger behind us,” Bryson said.

“What’s past is past,” SDG&E; Chairman Tom Page said during an afternoon press conference at SDG&E;’s downtown San Diego headquarters. Page said SDG&E; was ready to enter a “whole new ballgame” now that the merger has been abandoned.

For merger opponents, the decision by SDG&E; and Edison ended a three-year struggle to keep SDG&E; from being swallowed up by the much-larger Edison.

“It’s over,” said Michael Shames, executive director of Utility Consumers Action Network, a San Diego-based consumer group that has opposed the merger since it first was proposed in 1988. “There were no surprises. . . . We all knew it was going to happen after the 5-0 vote.”

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, a staunch merger opponent, demanded Thursday that SDG&E; agree to seven tough conditions that city attorneys believe will give San Diego veto power over any future merger or sale involving SDG&E.;

Page said he would entertain any “constructive” suggestions from O’Connor. “We are both looking for . . . (ways) to meet the energy needs of San Diego,” Page said.