Moody's cuts SoCal Edison, Edison Int'l to junk Tuesday January 16, 12:27 PM EST NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The credit and debt ratings of Southern California Edison and its parent, Edison International (EIX), were cut to junk status Tuesday by Moody's Investors Service.

The downgrades will trigger default provisions on various of the utility's credit lines and bank loans.

Moody's cut SoCal Edison's senior unsecured debt rating eight notches to "Caa2" from "Baa3," and its short-term rating to "Not Prime" from "Prime-3." It also cut SoCal Edison's secured pollution control bonds seven notches to "B3" from "Baa2." Moody's also cut Edison International's senior unsecured debt nine notches to "Caa3" from "Baa3," and its short-term rating to "Not Prime" from "Prime-3."

The agency said it is keeping the ratings on review for further downgrade. The downgrades came after SoCal Edison said Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it temporarily suspended payment of about $200 million of principal and $30 million of interest due on its 5.875 percent notes maturing Tuesday.

SoCal Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a unit of San Francisco-based PG&E Corp. (PCG), have run up billions of dollars of debt this year because they are subject to a rate freeze and have been unable to pass on their skyrocketing wholesale power costs to consumers.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 16, 2001