Southern California Edison Company is currently conducting a research and development effort directed toward constructing a commercial facility for recovery of energy from municipal refuse by the late 1980’s. This effort is one element in the utility’s program to develop alternate, renewable sources of energy to meet future electricity demands. Material presented in this paper describes recent studies that were undertaken to determine the site-specific economic and technical feasibility of constructing a 2,000-ton-per-day, or larger, refuse-to-energy facility at one or more sites in Southern California.