Action Against Enron Sought

Action Against Enron Sought

Jun 20 - Columbian

Lawmakers from Washington state and California pressed energy regulators Friday to take retroactive action against Enron, seeking to make the bankrupt energy company pay for actions from the beginning of the 2000-01 energy crisis.

Their move came as outrage grows among state officials in the West over new evidence of market manipulation by Enron traders made public by a Washington state public utility district.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sued the company on Thursday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a year ago revoked Enron's rights to trade electricity, but has said that contracts reached before then remain valid.

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein released a letter to FERC Chairman Pat Wood saying the agency should revoke Enron's market rights as of Jan. 1, 2000, to get back some $1.8 billion in profits the company made since then.

"In my view, FERC has the clear authority to order remedies dating back to the time Enron's violations began, or at least as of January 1, 2000," Feinstein wrote.

"It is time that the ratepayers of California and the West get that money back... I continue to be outraged by FERC's inaction."

Democratic Reps. Jay Inslee and Rick Larsen of Washington state made a similar argument in a separate letter to FERC on Friday.

"FERC needs to have a change of attitude and a willingness to use the authority that they have, which gives them the ability to rescind the right to charge market-based rates any time they discover new information," Inslee said in a statement.

FERC has said California is owed some $3 billion in refunds for spot market sales from Enron and other sellers, but the exact sum is still being determined.

Tapes recordings released earlier this month in Washington state show Enron traders openly gloating about manipulating California's power market and boasting they would bring the state to its knees.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .