Edison CEO given $1.9 million
Edison International said Tuesday that it gave Chief Executive John Bryson a $1.9-million cash bonus for 2006, a year when rate hikes and a summer heat wave sent electric bills soaring and federal regulators questioned the company’s energy trading practices. The year also featured state hearings on how Edison’s flagship utility rigged customer satisfaction surveys and skewed safety reporting.
The Rosemead-based owner of Southern California Edison also awarded bonuses worth a combined $2.34 million to four other top executives, according to a regulatory filing. Bryson’s bonus was down 7.8% from 2005; and three of the other four were less than in 2005.
Edison’s utility unit serves 4.7 million customers in Central and Southern California, making it the state’s second-largest investor-owned power utility. Its unregulated subsidiaries produce, distribute and trade power.
The company, which will report its 2006 earnings today, said in June that it expected reduced earnings from power generation and investments to depress overall earnings to below 2005 levels.
News of the bonuses elicited a scornful reaction at the Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer group.
“Last summer our phones were ringing off the hook from some very, very angry people, and there were some seniors who were choosing between the air conditioning and food during the heat wave ... so what is it that these people are being rewarded for?” said Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for the group.
No Edison executive was available to explain how the bonuses were determined.
State regulators are weighing how much to penalize Southern California Edison for falsifying customer satisfaction and safety data to win customer-funded bonuses. Late last year, Edison said enforcement officials at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommended launching an investigation and seeking monetary penalties from the company for trading practices at its Mission Energy unit.
Edison admitted that records were falsified in the state case, but it denied that its trading arm violated federal rules. In January, the utility canceled a 6% rate increase for 2007 because it ended 2006 with a surplus.
elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com
