I don't recall ever hearing about this.
Here's an excerpt from a 2006 Business Week article that makes reference to it:
THE ENRON EXEMPTION. Critics say that equation has fueled speculation by relatively new entrants into energy markets. Senators Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the investigations panel of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, blame escalating oil and gas prices in part on an "explosion" of speculative energy commodity trading on unregulated, over-the-counter electronic exchanges.
In Washington circles, that lack of oversight has a specific name: The Enron Exemption. It refers to a longstanding regulatory loophole that was written into law in 2000, when Enron and other big energy traders convinced congressional lawmakers to codify an exemption for over-the-counter electronic exchanges from the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, a law that was designed to bolster regulatory review of commodities trades.
OUT OF SIGHT? Since then, unregulated trading has flourished in the U.S., most notably with the growing reach of the London-based Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, a leading operator of electronic energy exchanges that, until recently, trafficked only in European commodities. That changed in 1999, when U.S. commodities regulators gave ICE permission to install trading terminals in the U.S. In January, the London exchange went one step further, initiating trading for West Texas Intermediate crude, a type of oil produced and delivered in the United States. And in April, ICE began allowing U.S.-based traders to trade U.S. gasoline and heating oil futures on the ICE exchange.
The upshot: U.S. speculators now can avoid all federal oversight or reporting requirements by routing their trades through London's ICE instead of the highly regulated New York Mercantile Exchange. Both exchanges have had voluminous growth In recent years. "What's transparent is huge," Fusaro says. "What's not transparent is even bigger."
Still, Congress isn't likely to make much headway in regulating energy markets, and the ICE offers a key reason why. The London exchange, with servers in Atlanta and trading terminals on several continents, is a global operation that defies domestic regulation. Any attempt to crack down on trading could push the whole operation offshore. "The issue," Fusaro says, "is how do you regulate cyberspace?"
Who gave us this turkey? Enron screwed California blind and now the same shit is screwing the rest of us with gas prices.
Edit: here's the link. Since I quoted them, it seems right to link to the larger story (which is abut BP's spekalatin' ways)
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2006/pi20060830_917860.htm
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