Environmentalist-turned-utility executive John E. Bryson will retire in July from the helm of Edison International, the Rosemead company said Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Bryson, who will leave at age 65 in accordance with company tradition, will be succeeded by Theodore F. Craver Jr., 56, a long-time lieutenant who helped steer Edison International and its Southern California Edison subsidiary through the 2000-01 energy crisis. Craver will join Edison’s board immediately and become president of Edison in April, a few months before he takes the jobs of chairman and chief executive at Edison International.

“I think it’s time to make a change, and this is consistent with our planning for a long time,” said Bryson, who will have served as chief executive for 18 years, the longest tenure at Edison in at least half a century. “It’s exciting to have done it, and I intend to keep doing it for another nine months.”

Edison is best known as the parent company to Southern California Edison, which serves 4.8 million customers. Bryson and other executives often have come under fire from the Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer group active at the state Public Utilities Commission.

“I doubt his customers are going to shed any tears. In TURN’s point of view, a great CEO of a utility would keep rates affordable and keep the utility reliable,” said Mindy Spatt, the group’s spokeswoman. Bryson, she said, “hasn’t kept rates affordable, and as for reliability — there have been good times and bad times.”

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