Feds suggest Enron contracts were illegal

[emad]

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE Mar 12, 2005 — Government regulators handed a major victory
to western utilities and cities trying to get out of exorbitant contracts they made with disgraced energy giant Enron Corp. during the power crisis of 2000-01.

In a six-page order issued Friday evening, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission determined that Enron was engaging in illegal activity at the time it entered in the contracts. It was the first time the commission acknowledged that the contracts were signed under fraudulent pretenses.

The regulatory agency said a hearing should be held to determine whether Enron can collect profits it would have received had those contracts been fulfilled. The hearing is expected in May, followed by FERC's final decision late this year.

Utilities and cities ended their contracts with Enron or watched as Enron terminated them when the company's web of fraudulent accounting was revealed in late 2001. They include the Snohomish County Public Utility District in Everett, about 30 miles north of Seattle; Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power Company in Nevada; and the California cities of Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=574252

[KoKo]

1. This was announced Friday evening? Convenient, isn't it? n/t

[UpInArms]

2. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you /sarcasm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml

Enron Traders Caught On Tape

excerpt:

Officials with the Snohomish Public Utility District near Seattle received the tapes from the Justice Department.

"This is the evidence we've all been waiting for. This proves they manipulated the market," said Eric Christensen, a spokesman for the utility.

That utility, like many others, is trying to get its money back from Enron.

"They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"

"Yeah, grandma Millie, man"

"Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt hour."

And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.

...more...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2002/052902a.html

Bush Did Try to Save Enron

excerpt:

As Enron’s crisis worsened through the first nine months of the Bush presidency, Ken Lay got Bush’s help in three principal ways:

--Bush personally joined the fight against imposing caps on the soaring price of electricity in California at a time when Enron was artificially driving up the price of electricity by manipulating supply. Bush’s rear-guard action against price caps bought Enron and other energy traders extra time to gouge hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s consumers.

--Bush granted Lay broad influence over the administration’s energy policies, including the choice of key regulators to oversee Enron’s businesses. The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was suddenly replaced in 2001 after he began to delve into Enron’s complex derivative-financing schemes.

--Bush had his National Security Council staff organize an administration-wide campaign to pressure the Indian government to accommodate Enron, which wanted to sell its generating plant in Dabhol, India, for $2.3 billion. Bush administration pressure on India over the Dabhol plant continued even after Sept. 11, when India’s support was needed for the war on terrorism. The administration’s threats against India on Enron’s behalf didn’t stop until Nov. 8.

...more...

[Demeter]

14. How Fitting If Enron Takes Down Bush

It's Spelled "I-M-P-E-A-C-H"

Everybody together now:

[mbperrin]

3. SUGGEST?

Wowwwww..........

[Barkley]

4. So California Gov. Gray Davis was right -- the energy crisis was rigged

Electricity prices and the rolling blackouts in 2001 have been a major political issue in California. Davis continued his offensive, attacking the FERC procedures that led to it the energy crisis.

"Every time the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has had to choose between energy generators and California consumers, they have sided with generators," - Gray Davis

http://www.forbes.com/2002/12/13/cx_da_1213topnews.html

[Selteri]

5. Yup,

By the looks of it it does appear that Enron was literally part of a large engineered plan to help oust Gray Davis among many other things.

[Mari333]

6. They dont care who they hurt, they sink to new lows

every day in their lust for power.

[radwriter0555]

8. YES. and those of us who support DAVIS were right too, in backing his

opinion.

Davis was a good governor.

Arnie is betraying all Californians.

[catzies]

9. Yes, and we know Arnold was selected to bury this.

This Californian is still pissed after all these years.

[UpInArms]

10. what was that saying -

if you're not pissed off, you're not informed (?)

http://www.alternet.org/story/16902

Arnold's Enron Secret

excerpt:

The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.

Now, 34 pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine that tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.

Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers.

It takes real cojones to bring such a suit. Who's the plaintiff taking on the bad guys? Cruz Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor and reluctant leading candidate against Schwarzenegger.

Now follow the action. One month after Cruz brings suit, Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in L.A. of his political buck-buddies, including Arnold. Their plan, to undercut Davis (according to Enron memos) and "solve" the energy crisis -- that is, make the Bustamante legal threat go away.

...more...

[Athame]

15. If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. n/t

:grr:

[ldf]

17. another version

if you are able to keep your head while all those around you are losing their's, then you obviously do not have a good grasp of the situation.

:-)

[YvonneCa]

16. You bet he was right...

...and I believe the current administration in Washington has known that from the start. How it was twisted to elect Arnold is the story that needs to be in the press.:mad:

[leesa]

7. Really?? These guys are BRILLIANT!

[Trajan]

11. Well NO SHIT ! ....

FUCK ! ..... WHY does it take these idiots SO damned LONG to figure out what we knew from the start ? ...

Those contracts were bargained in BAD FAITH ..... Simple as that ....

Somehow, Someway, The Gropinator should be HUNG with this ....

Gray Davis was right .....

[AlCzervik]

12. Lets see Cheney's FERC panel.

[Demeter]

13. Has The World Ended?

Never in a million years would I have dared to hope that the corporate thieves would be deprived of their loot. Maybe there's hope for this nation, after all.