Although the utility quickly discounted the importance of it, the California utility consumer watchdog group TURN (The Utility Reform Network) gained a temporary stay last week from a federal appeals court to the court-approved settlement between state regulators and Southern California Edison Co. TURN asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stay an Oct. 5 judgment by a federal district court judge in Los Angeles.

Edison officials said the move was procedural, and that nothing will change in the settlement, allowing the utility to collect revenues to cover its wholesale power costs and to substantially pay off $3.3 billion of unpaid debt and wholesale power bills. The appeals court has simply sent the matter back to federal court judge Ronald Lew in Los Angeles and that judge has categorically said he approves of the settlement, an Edison utility spokesperson said. Edison still intends to be able to repay creditors by the end of the first quarter next year, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the California Public Utilities Commission said that the order doesn’t adversely affect the “merits of the settlement” because the appeals court simply remanded the issue to Judge Lew, who has until Nov. 13 to rule, but could act as soon as the end of this week. “We feel the settlement is good for California consumers, and we are confident the judge will make the right decision,” the San Francisco-based CPUC spokesperson said.

An energy lawyer quoted in a Bloomberg News report interpreted the appeals court action differently, noting it was “extraordinary” for it to grant an emergency stay of a trial judge’s order.

TURN argued that with wholesale electricity prices falling, and earlier (record) retail rate increases this year approaching 40% or higher for some groups of customers, Edison has been allowed to accumulate “billions of dollars in over-charges,” which the court settlement with the CPUC will allow the utility to use to pay its creditors for past power purchases. TURN said the money instead should be “refunded to ratepayers” because it rightfully belongs to them.

“The (court of appeals) order confirms that there are substantial questions about the legality of what the CPUC has done,” said TURN’s Executive Director Nettie Hoge. “The appellate court wants to see ratepayers protected while those questions are answered.”

Edison and CPUC spokespeople questioned this interpretation of what the appeals court action means. They contend it is just procedural, and by remanding the issue to Judge Lew the appeals court has told TURN it “jumped the gun” by bringing the issue on appeal at this time. When Judge Lew approved the settlement, he denied an oral request by TURN for a stay, pending the group’s filing of an appeal.

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