Southern California Edison Co. v. California Public Utilities Commission

The California Court of Appeal rejected Southern California Gas Company’s challenge to the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) authority to implement the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC), which required electric utilities to collect a surcharge from ratepayers to fund renewable energy research, development, and demonstration projects. The court ruled that CPUC had the constitutional and statutory authority to implement EPIC, that EPIC was not an unlawful delegation of CPUC’s authority, and that the surcharge was a regulatory fee, not a tax requiring legislative enactment.