During an earnings call Thursday, July 30, Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro said despite significant interest in the utility’s wildfire compensation program the number of people seeking compensation through litigation is more than double the number of claims through Edison’s program.
Pizarro provided an update on the compensation program during the utility’s second-quarter earnings call. He said that to date, Southern California Edison has extended more than 2,200 offers totaling more than $775 million to more than 12,300 individuals.
“There is continued community interest in the voluntary program,” Pizarro said.
Individuals already in the litigation process are able to submit a claim through the program, but it must be submitted by their attorney. Once an SCE offer is accepted an individual waives all past and future legal claims against SCE.
During the question and answer portion of the call, Pizarro was asked about what he estimated the low end of liability for Edison through the litigation process.
“SCE’s equipment likely was associated with the events, but we also recognize that there are a number of other factors that impacted ultimately the extent of the Eaton fire and not only the weather but some of the factors that you saw show up in the cross claims that SCE filed against a number of entities,” Pizarro said Thursday summarizing the utility’s position.
He said that liability is probable, but did not provide an estimate on what it could ultimately cost SCE. Pizarro said the number of individuals represented in the compensation program claims is small compared to the more than 30,000 claims filed in litigation.
“We just don’t have the volume through the WRCP yet to use that to provide an estimate,” Pizarro said.
Last month, Southern California Edison held a community town hall to provide residents information about the program and fielded questions from residents. At the conclusion of the town hall Pizarro said his message to survivors who are unsure about whether to take the compensation route is simple: “Check it out.”
“There’s no obligation, it’s taking people under two hours to file the form and it’s an option that they have available to them,” Pizarro said in June.
The deadline to file a claim with SCE’s compensation program is Nov. 30. SCE launched the compensation program last fall.