MERMA Account

No matter what the ultimate fate of Mohave's future will be, it appears that pursuant to the terms of the Consent Decree, the plant will have to temporarily shut-down at the end of 2005. The Consent Decree mandates this, and there has been no evidence that the plaintiffs to the Consent Decree will agree to any change in the closure date or any other terms of the settlement. Therefore, Edison seeks authority to create a new memorandum account-the Mohave Employee-Related Memorandum Account (MERMA)-to track limited worker protection benefit expenses that Edison may incur in connection with the temporary shut-down of Mohave.

As Edison explains in its brief, the creation of the MERMA account does not pre-judge whether Mohave will re-open again, or affect the date of any re-opening. The only purpose of the account is to provide a means for the future recovery of any worker protection benefit expenses associated with the shut-down of Mohave that may be incurred before January 1, 2006.

If there is an extension to the Consent Decree and Edison is allowed to keep Mohave operational post 2005, appropriate changes will be made to the MERMA account to reflect this time extension.

Any worker protection benefit expenses associated with the Mohave shut-down that are incurred after January 1, 2006, would be addressed in Edison's 2006 General rate Case (GRC).

We agree that this account is appropriate and necessary and direct Edison to file an A.L. with the E.D. establishing the MERMA mechanism and associated preliminary statement language. The expenses Edison is to track in this MERMA account include costs incurred by Edison for severance, retraining, early retirement, outplacement and related expenses associated with Edison employees impacted by the shut-down of Mohave, including all payroll taxes associated with Mohave worker protection benefit expenses. The balance of the MERMA would earn interest at the standard three-month commercial paper rate.