Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Edison International (Edison) demonstrates active and mostly positive engagement on US climate policy, with subsidiary Southern California Edison (SCE) engaging with mostly positive positions in California. While the company advocates for certain decarbonization measures, it takes less supportive positions on rooftop solar and the transition from fossil gas. CEO Pedro Pizarro served as the 2023-2024 Chair of the Board for Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which advocates for a long-term role for fossil gas and has been strategically opposing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s power plant rules.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Edison has positive top-line messaging on climate policy. CEO Pedro Pizarro has been vocal on climate: in a December 2023 interview with the World Climate Foundation during COP28, Pizarro called for ambitious action, emphasizing “an increasingly urgent need to address climate change by decarbonizing and transforming our economics with clean energy and electrification.” Similarly, in a September 2023 interview with the New York Times, Pizarro called for greater action on climate, stating that “we need more urgency.”
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: Edison engages on climate-related policies with mostly positive positions. The company advocated for federal climate legislation, calling for Congressional leadership to pass the Build Back Better Act’s clean energy tax credits in a February 2022 C2ES joint letter. That same month, following the utility roundtable with President Biden to discuss the Build Back Better Act, CEO Pizarro reiterated his support for the legislation's tax credits in a Washington Post interview. Subsidiary SCE has taken positive positions on federal climate regulations, submitting April 2023 joint comments and October 2022 joint comments in support of the Department of Energy’s proposals to increase the energy conservation standards for certain gas appliances.
However, the company has advocated for weaker rooftop solar subsidies in California. In March 2021, SCE submitted a joint proposal to California regulators that called for a partial rollback of the subsidies in the state’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) program. The company continued to advocate for the rollback, including in August 2022 and February 2022 Clean Energy for All Coalition letters as well as a November 2022 opinion piece by CEO Pizarro in the Los Angeles Times, in which he emphasized that “now is not the time to continue outdated, extravagant subsidies.” Following a final vote by the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in December 2022, the updated NEM program took effect in April 2023, significantly reducing net metering credits for new rooftop solar customers.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Edison takes mostly positive positions on the energy transition, however CEO Pizarro has expressed less supportive views, including on the EPA’s rules for addressing power plant GHG emissions. Pizarro frequently supports federal and state decarbonization measures: for example, following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, Pizarro wrote a LinkedIn post that celebrated the law’s climate investments. However, in an August 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Pizarro emphasized that the EPA’s power plant rules, which proposed staggered standards for coal and gas plants that would take effect starting in 2030, are not legally defensible, and that the use of hydrogen and carbon capture as compliance technologies is not technically achievable within the proposed scope and timeline. In the same interview, Pizarro stated that “there’s no daylight between Southern California Edison and the Edison Electric Institute on this topic,” thereby aligning the company with EEI’s own negative position on the rules. Neither Edison nor SCE appear to have submitted individual comments on any part of the proposal.
SCE actively engages on California rulemakings related to the energy mix with a variety of positions. For example, during the public comment period for the 2022 Scoping Plan update, the company submitted multiple comments, including in October 2022, that supported the climate plan’s building decarbonization measures without specifying a clear position on the long-term role of fossil gas.
Industry Association Governance: Edison International disclosed its industry association memberships in its 2023 sustainability report, published in May 2024, however the company did not describe each group’s engagement on specific climate policies. Edison is a member of Business Roundtable, which demonstrates a mix of positions on US climate policy, and subsidiary Southern California Edison is a board member of the California Chamber of Commerce, which continues to oppose a range of state climate proposals. CEO Pizarro served as the 2023-2024 Chair of the Board for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). EEI, which engages with both negative and positive positions on US climate policy, advocates for a long-term role for fossil gas and continues to strategically oppose the EPA’s power plant rules. Pizarro's term as EEI Chair ended in June 2024.