SCE Pays Shills

Last week, Mission Viejo watchdog Joe Holtzman forwarded another example of SCE buying influence: “Big Bucks Edison paying off Chambers of Commerce.”

SCE paid almost $500,000 to Chambers of Commerce in 2011 (most recent data available), plus $66 million for in-house and outside legal counsel in 2011 in the same reporting period.

Adding to Joe’s post was Martha Sullivan, who wrote, “Women’s Energy Matters (WEM), led by Barbara George, did some good analysis on this in the Opening Testimony in the CA PUC’s investigation into the San Onofre Outage a month ago.”

As an example what SCE is buying, on May 3, the South Orange County Economic Coalition released a post, “Vote: Help Keep a Safe & Reliable Energy Supply for South OC.”

Here’s the message from the SOC Economic Coalition:

Dear Coalition Partners –

The San Diego Union-Tribune currently has a reader poll asking the public if Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) should be shut down indefinitely. Please log on to their website to register your support for keeping SONGS open to ensure a reliable energy supply for South Orange County. Remember to vote "NO" on the question asked by the Union-Tribune.