Environmental Developments
|
12 Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec. 31, 2012
|
|||||||||||||||||
Environmental Developments [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||
Environmental Developments | Environmental Developments Greenhouse Gas Regulation There have been a number of federal and state legislative and regulatory initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. Any climate change regulation or other legal obligation that would require substantial reductions in GHG emissions or that would impose additional costs or charges for GHG emissions could significantly increase the cost of generating electricity from fossil fuels as well as the cost of purchased power, which could adversely affect SCE's business. In the case of utilities, like SCE, these costs are generally borne by customers. Significant developments include the following:
Greenhouse Gas Litigation In June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed public nuisance claims against five power companies, ruling that the CAA and the US EPA actions it authorizes displace federal common law nuisance claims that might arise from the emission of GHGs. The court also affirmed the Second Circuit's determination that at least some of the plaintiffs had standing to bring the case. The court did not address whether the CAA also preempts state law claims arising from the same circumstances. In September 2012, a three-judge panel of the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a case brought against Edison International and other defendants by the Alaskan Native Village of Kivalina. In November 2012, the plaintiffs' request for a rehearing by a larger panel of Ninth Circuit judges was denied. Plaintiffs seek damages of up to $400 million for the cost of relocating the village, which they claim is no longer protected from storms because the Arctic sea ice has melted as the result of climate change. In March 2012, the federal district court in Mississippi dismissed, in its entirety, the purported class action complaint filed by private citizens in May 2011, naming a large number of defendants, including SCE and other Edison International subsidiaries, for damages allegedly arising from Hurricane Katrina. In April 2012, the plaintiffs filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which remains pending. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants' activities resulted in emissions of substantial quantities of greenhouse gases that have contributed to climate change and sea level rise, which in turn are alleged to have increased the destructive force of Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit alleges causes of action for negligence, public and private nuisance, and trespass, and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. The claims in this lawsuit are nearly identical to a subset of the claims that were raised against many of the same defendants in a previous lawsuit that was filed in, and dismissed by, the same federal district court where the current case has been filed. |