March 20, 2003

El Paso Corporation and its subsidiaries today entered into a memorandum of understanding to settle claims made by Southern California Edison (SCE) and other prominent California parties that El Paso inappropriately exercised market power contributing to unjustly high costs of natural gas and electricity in California during recent years.  In response, SCE offered the following comment.

ROSEMEAD, Calif., March 20, 2003 - The El Paso agreement provides yet another significant revelation in determining the causes of the California energy crisis, and it will facilitate the recovery of electricity overcharges paid by our customers, and it will help safeguard our customers from the recurrence of market abuses in the natural gas market.

SCE and other state parties continue to press the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for full refunds of all unjust natural gas and electricity charges paid by Californians over the past several years.

# # #

An Edison International company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a population of more than 12 million via 4.5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern California. For more information on the California electricity crisis, see www.sce.com.