SoCal Ed's Turn For Sticker Shock

Southern California Edison told state regulators yesterday, "Sure we riggend customer satisfaction survyes and safety data, massively defrauding ratepayers, but we're the real victim here because the $237 million fine you want us to pay is unreasonable-- how about $51 million and we call it even?" [I'm paraphrasing here...]

According to Elizabeth Douglas in the Los Angeles Times:

"The case stems from Edison's admission in 2004 that employees had falsified data for seven years to help workers and the company win performance rewards that were paid for by the utility's customers. Subsequent investigations by Edison and the PUC uncovered elaborate schemes that artificially boosted the company's customer satisfaction scores along with extraordinary measures taken by safety managers to downplay employee injuries."

What happens next? The ball is in the PUC's court...

Edison argues for lower fine [Los Angeles Times]