The Republican Way: Exposing Bu$h, Lay, Enron, California, etc. ETC.

[Zorra]

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20040708/capt.sge.llr96.080704125246.photo01.default

US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) walks away from a briefing with the media, refusing to answer questions after he was asked about Enron and the reported indictment of former CEO Kenneth Lay, who was a close adviser and fund-raiser for Bush and his father, earning him the presidential nickname of 'Kenny Boy.'(AFP/Paul J. Richards)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040708/photos_ts_afp/040708125254_jg418y7h_photo1

The following snippets of articles will fully explain why Bu$h walked away when the media asked him about the indictment of Ken Lay. Bu$h and many members of his administration, including Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, were also involved with Enron. Even christian coalitionist Ralph Reed!

Please keep this thread kicked to help defeat Bu$h.

I am going to start this out with what is either a huge lie by Bu$h, or one of the best examples of stupidity ever uttered by an elected official in the US:

George W. Bush blames California Energy Crisis On Environmental Regulations:

Bush Signals California is on its Own
L. A. Times - January 19, 2001

President-elect George W. Bush on Thursday dismissed the price caps sought by Gov. Gray Davis as a way out of California's deepening electricity crisis, and instead proposed relaxing environmental rules that he said keep the state's power plants from running full tilt.
"It's their law," Bush said in the AP interview, referring to the state's 1996 deregulation legislation. "California is going to have to address and correct the law that has caused some of this to happen."

The president-elect and his chief economic advisor, Lawrence B. Lindsey, discounted the danger that the state's problems pose for the national economy. "It remains to be seen how long and severe the effects will be," Lindsey said in an interview.

Snip---

And in a separate interview with CNN, (Bush) put much of the blame for the state's problems on strict environmental rules. "If there's any environmental regulations that's preventing California from having a 100% max output at their plants--as I understand there may be--then we need to relax those regulations," he said

Next

Bush and Enron
The Wall Street Journal – by Bob Davis – December 30, 2001
(11/29/01) -

For years, Enron Corp. Chairman Ken Lay has been George W. Bush's best friend in the board rooms of America's top corporations.
Snip
Mr. Mosbacher says he introduced Mr. Lay to the Bush family around 1987, when he persuaded Mr. Lay to help raise money for George H.W. Bush's successful presidential bid in 1988. Several years later, Mr. Lay helped organize and raise funds for an international economic summit in Houston, where Enron is based, and made sure to include George W. Bush, then an executive with the Texas Rangers baseball team, in the planning.

Mr. Lay contributed $461,000 to the younger Mr. Bush's two successful gubernatorial campaigns. He also made Enron's fleet of corporate jets available to Mr. Bush and won his help in lobbying officials in other states considering Enron projects.

His influence with then-Gov. Bush was based on more than money. Mr. Lay was one of the state's leading business executives and deeply involved in Texas politics. Under Mr. Bush's predecessor, Democrat Ann Richards, Mr. Lay headed the Governor's Business Council, a state advisory board. Mr. Bush asked him to stay on the job to help develop an educational reform plan and sell it to the Texas Legislature.

In that capacity, Mr. Lay became close to several Bush aides, including political guru Karl Rove and communications adviser Karen Hughes, who have taken positions at the White House. He also got to know another leading Texas businessman: Dick Cheney, then CEO of Dallas oil concern Halliburton Co., who would become Mr. Bush's pick for vice president.

NEXT

Enron Is a Cancer on the Presidency

L. A. Times – by Robert Scheer – January 3, 2002

Finally, a reporter had the temerity to question Bush on Friday regarding the ignominious collapse of Enron Corp. run by Kenneth L. Lay, a Bush family intimate and top campaign contributor. Bush expressed concern "for the citizens of Houston who worked for Enron who lost life savings" and added: "It's very important for us to fully understand the 'whys' of Enron."

Sure is, but did Bush never ask "Kenny Boy"--his nickname for Enron's chairman--what was going on?

After all, not only was Kenny Boy one of Bush's major contributors, but it was Lay and Enron that Bush turned to for critical advice on how to further exploit U.S. natural resources. The media, which had hounded Bill Clinton on his Whitewater connections, have allowed Bush to maintain the fiction that his--and his father's--administration had nothing to do with the debacle that is Enron.

NEXT

Enron is not Bush's Whitewater
CBS MarketWatch – by David Callaway – January 11, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Enron debacle won't be President Bush's Whitewater. It will be much worse
Snip

Don't expect to see either Bush or Vice President Cheney directly linked to the financial shenanigans that brought Enron down. They won't be. This is not about finding a smoking gun, as much as some Democrats might wish it were.

What it is about, and what the public will get to hear and read about in wrenching detail over the coming months, is how business gets done down in Texas. How a small group of business leaders exert enormous clout over Bush and his team in getting the rules changed to their benefit.

It will explain why Bush has locked up presidential records, locked out any voices opposed to his pro-business agenda and rammed through an expensive economic plan that wiped out the budget surplus but to date hasn't had any positive effect on the economy.

It will explain what influence Enron Chief Executive Ken Lay and his advisers had with Cheney and his energy task force when they met six times last year while the vice president was putting together the administration's energy policy.

And it will explain why Bush is now thinking about acting on a proposal from that very task force that seeks to roll back a key provision of the Clean Air Act that helps keep factory pollution down by requiring new controls when old plants are upgraded.

NEXT

Enron Asked Officials for Help
CBS MarketWatch – by Rex Nutting – January 11, 2002
Snip

Lay's ties to administration

Lay met with Vice President Dick Cheney last spring as part of Cheney's overhaul of national energy policy. Cheney has confirmed that Lay and his company executives held six meetings with Cheney and his staff.

Lay was a top fund-raiser for Bush in the 2000 election when Evans was campaign chairman. He also donated money for the inauguration and for the legal battle in Florida. Bush said he first got to know him when Lay was supporting Democratic Gov. Ann Richards in 1994.
That's the same year Lay gave $1,000 to Ashcroft, then a Republican senator from Missouri. Lay also hosted a campaign fund-raiser for Ashcroft in 1998 when he was exploring a presidential bid.

NEXT

Connect the Enron Dots to Bush

Los Angeles Times - by Robert Scheer - December 14, 2001
Snip

That Lay was instrumental in Bush's rise to the presidency is indisputable. Since 1993, Lay and top Enron executives donated nearly $2 million to Bush. Lay also personally donated $326,000 in soft money to the Republican Party in the three years prior to Bush's presidential bid, and he was one of the Republican "pioneers" who raised $100,000 in smaller contributions for Bush. Lay's wife donated $100,000 for inauguration festivities. As governor, Bush did what Enron wanted, cutting taxes and deregulating utilities. The deregulation ideology, which George W. long had adopted as gospel, allowed dubious bookkeeping and other acts of chicanery that shocked Wall Street and drove a $60-billion company, seventh on the Fortune 500 list, into bankruptcy.

Snip
What was Lay's role in the sudden replacement of Curtis Hebert Jr. as Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman? As the New York Times reported, Hebert "had barely settled into his new job this year when he had an unsettling telephone conversation with Kenneth L. Lay, prodded him to back ... a faster pace in opening up access to the electricity transmission grid to companies like Enron." Lay admits making the call but in an unctuous defense of his influence peddling said, "The final decision on was going to be the president's, certainly not ours." Soon after, Hebert was replaced by Texan Pat Wood, who was favored by Lay.

Snip

Other questions: Was there any conflict of interest in the roles played by key Bush aides? Political advisor Karl Rove owned as much as $250,000 in Enron stock. And economic advisor Larry Lindsay and Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick went straight from Enron's payroll to their federal jobs.

Snip.
`
`The people who have run Enron are crooks who have ripped off American consumers, they ripped off their employees and they're now in line for a welfare payment'' from tax breaks in the economic stimulus package before Congress, Sanders said in an interview.

NEXT

Enron's Connections With Bush

San Jose Mercury News – by Molly Ivins – December 15, 2001
Snip

Enron started as a gas pipeline company that went into trading natural gas, and even then the company's critics claimed Enron was making profits by stoking volatility in gas prices. The same charge showed up again in spades with the newly deregulated electricity markets. Enron had lobbied for utility deregulation relentlessly, formidably and very expensively at both the state and national levels. The company seemed to spend more time influencing government than doing business.

Just a few spiffy eye-openers on Enron's connections:
·Lay and Enron together donated $2 million to George W. Bush. In 2000, a company memo that was an open strong-arm recommended employees give campaign checks for Bush to the political action committee: low-level managers were urged to contribute $500 and senior executives at least $5,000. It gave more money last cycle than any other energy company.
·Lawrence B. Lindsay, Bush's top economic adviser, got $50,000 from Enron in 2000 for consulting, presumably giving the company the same excellent advice now proving so healthy for the nation's economy.
·Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, sold between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Enron stock earlier this year, after being criticized for conflict of interest.
·The California Legislature passed a contempt motion against Enron for failure to respond to a June 11 subpoena. The legislature is investigating whether power generating companies willfully manipulated electricity supply in order to drive up prices.
·Lay was the only energy executive to meet alone with Vice President Dick Cheney while Cheney was drawing up a new national energy policy in secret.
·Enron influenced public policy time and again while Bush was governor in Texas. Enron was a major player during the utilities deregulation debate, for which Bush lobbied actively, and in ``tort reform,'' making it harder to sue corporations for the damage they do.

NEXT

Ken Lay, G. W. Bush, and Deregulation

New York Times – by Jim Yardley – February 17, 2002

AUSTIN, Tex., Feb. 15 — In more than two dozen letters written from Kenneth L. Lay to then-Gov. George W. Bush, the former Enron chairman lobbied repeatedly for his company's pet issue, electric deregulation, sought the governor's presence at Enron-related functions and sent magazine articles and personal notes.
The letters are included in 350 pages of correspondence between Enron executives and Mr. Bush when he was Texas governor, all of which suggests that Mr. Lay was involved in a variety of pressing state issues, including education, civil justice reform and electric deregulation. Mr. Lay also asked for the governor to lobby the state's Congressional delegation on federal issues important to Enron, including tax relief.

The letters, released today after open records requests, are a reminder that the relationship between Mr. Lay and Mr. Bush, which has chilled as scandal has enveloped Enron, was once close. Mr. Bush wrote Mr. Lay a teasing note about his 55th birthday. Mr. Lay twice thanked the governor for Christmas presents, including in December 1997 after Mr. Bush sent him a state Capitol ornament.

Mr. Lay's pre-eminent concern in his letters was the deregulation of the retail electricity market, a law signed by Mr. Bush in 1999. He wrote Mr. Bush several letters about the issue, including one after the 1997 legislative session, when the measure fell short of passage.
"We would have liked to have accomplished more," Mr. Lay wrote, "but realistically, the issue would not have moved nearly as far as it did without your involvement, and for that Enron is deeply grateful."
On other occasions, Mr. Lay solicited Mr. Bush to appear at a variety of functions, including twice for an annual conference promoting trade between Japan and the United States, for a gala in Houston for a Civil War musical sponsored partly by Enron as well as for the 1998 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Bush attended the Japan conference at least once, though he apparently declined the gala for the musical. It could not be confirmed whether he attended the Davos conference.

In April 1997, Mr. Lay wrote the governor about an upcoming meeting scheduled between Mr. Bush and an influential official from Uzbekistan. He noted that Enron had opened an office in Tashkent and was negotiating a $2 billion joint venture.
"I know you and Ambassador Safaev will have a productive meeting which will result in a friendship between Texas and Uzbekistan," Mr. Lay wrote.

Two years later, Mr. Lay wrote asking that Mr. Bush meet with the prime minister of Romania during his visit to Houston. He noted that Enron had recently finalized a joint venture gas marketing deal in the country. But a handwritten note by a staff member suggests that Mr. Bush declined to meet the official.

NEXT

Whitewater Critics Quiet About Enron
New York Observer – by Joe Conason – December 24, 2001

Those relationships extend well beyond the $2 million bestowed on the President and other politicians by Enron executives, or the substantial blocks of stock held by Bush appointees, or the formidable cadre of connected lobbyists, consultants and officials that make the White House resemble an Enron branch office. One place to start untangling the Enron tale might be the moment in early 1993 when Bush appointees on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to exempt energy traders from its anti-fraud regulations. The commissioner who initiated that convenient rule-making process, following a post-election request from Enron and several similar companies, was Wendy Gramm, wife of the Texas Senator. She left the CFTC just before the actual vote and, five weeks later, joined the Enron board of directors. This was merely a coincidence, as she and her benefactors in Houston later explained.

NEXT

Enron Makes Whitewater Look Like Peanuts

Tribune Media Services - by Bill Press – December 23, 2001
SNIP

For years, Ken Lay and George Bush have been joined at the hip, two free-wheeling Texas buddies. One helped the other succeed in "bidness;" the other helped his pal make it big in politics.
Consider the Bush-Enron connections. Enron could never have happened anywhere but Texas. It was only able to grow so big, so fast, because of the deregulation of energy companies instituted by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

And Ken Lay rewarded his friend. He and Enron together were Bush's biggest contributor, giving $2 million to his campaigns for governor and president. Lay also loaned Bush his corporate jet. In 2000, Lay sent a memo to company employees, suggesting that they contribute personal funds to Bush through the company's political action committee: $500 for low-level managers; $5000 for senior executives. Once in the White House, Bush responded generously.

Ken Lay was the only energy executive to meet privately with Vice President Dick Cheney to help shape the administration's new energy policy -- which included a recommendation to break up monopoly control of electricity transmission networks, a longtime Enron goal.
For a while, Bush even considered naming Lay his Commerce Secretary. Fortuitously, that appointment never happened. But he did surround himself with Enron partisans. Lawrence B. Lindsey, Bush's top economic adviser, was an Enron consultant.

Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative, served on Enron's advisory council. I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's Chief of Staff, was a major Enron stockholder. Thomas White, Secretary of the Army, was an Enron executive for over 10 years and held millions of dollars in stocks and options when appointed.

Karl Rove, chief White House political adviser, owned between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Enron stock when he met with Ken Lay in the White House to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators. And, until he was named Republican National Chairman last week, Marc Racicot was Enron's Washington lobbyist.

No wonder the Bush White House refused to help California solve its energy crisis last Spring. California's problems were caused by Enron's suddenly inflating the price of electricity, forcing blackouts throughout the state. But Bush refused to intervene to help consumers. He wouldn't do anything to hurt his pal's big business.
Indeed, the Bush-Enron connections are so close, it's hard to tell whether Enron is the house that Bush built or Bush is the house that Enron built. We know George Bush and friends were major players in Enron's corporate success. Were they also major facilitators of Enron's corporate wrongdoing?

NEXT

New Federal Energy Investigation Under Way

Dow Jones – by Bryan Lee – June 7, 2002
(6/5/02) - WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A House panel investigating the financial collapse of Enron Corp. has moved to widen its probe to consider alleged market manipulation by Enron and other energy companies.

As House Democrats Wednesday demanded that the Republican leadership end its "silence" in the face of mounting revelations about possible energy market manipulation, a House Energy and Commerce Committee aide acknowledged that a "preliminary investigation" is already under way.

NEXT

Is Bush Still an Enron Fan?
L. A. Times – by Robert Scheer – December 27, 2001

If you follow George Bush's thinking on how to fix our broken economy, you would throw a few hundred million in tax breaks to his buddies who bankrupted Enron. Not simply because they bankrolled his ascension to the Texas governorship and the White House but, more important, because they are modern alchemists who make money out of nothing.
Snip

Bush's Army secretary, Thomas White Jr., is another former top Enron executive who also managed to sell his $50-million to $100-million stake in the company well before shares dropped from $90 to 29 cents. Karl Rove, top White House political advisor, had a smaller $250,000 stake that, as far as I can determine, reporters have not asked him about. Neither have they asked Bush's economic advisor, Lawrence B. Lindsey, or Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, both of whom went directly from Enron to the White House, if they are now in the ranks of the suddenly poor.
Snip

Enron was Bush's model for economic progress, and Enron's Lay was the one individual consulted most closely in private meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials during development of their environment-busting plan to "solve" our energy problems.

Bush's Enron advisors were the chief zealots in his kitchen cabinet pushing for unregulated markets combined with tax breaks for rich companies. Enron won handsomely on both counts.

NEXT

Why Was No One Minding The Store?
AriannaOnline.com – by Arianna Huffington - December 24, 2001
Snip

Here's what happened: Last year, then-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt proposed a long-overdue ban on accounting firms performing additional services for companies they are auditing -- precisely the sort of dual relationship Arthur Andersen had with Enron. But his efforts were beaten back by a furious lobbying campaign mounted by the accounting industry's uber-lobbyist, Harvey Pitt, a man who has made a career out of butting heads with the SEC.

So when the Bush administration got around to naming its choice to head the watchdog agency this summer, who do you think they picked? That's right, SEC nemesis Harvey Pitt. Which is a little like naming Osama bin Laden to run the Office of Homeland Security.

Now I'm not saying that Pitt is corrupt -- just the wrong man for the job. Soon after taking office, the new chairman promised to turn the SEC into a "kinder, gentler" agency. But, as the Enron debacle proves, we don't need regulators who are kind and gentle -- we need them to be vigilant and unrelenting.

NEXT

Democrats Will Not Sell Out to Enron
Forbes – by Dan Ackman – December 28, 2001
Snip

Between 1989 and 1991, Enron's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lay contributed $793,110 to Republicans and $86,470 to Democrats. Overall, 72% of Enron's contributions went to Republican organizations or candidates, according to a Center for Responsive Politics report. Lay is a close personal friend of President George W. Bush, and was one of the top fundraisers for his presidential and gubernatorial campaigns.

The contributions are a pittance for Enron and its executives: Lay was paid $123 million in total compensation in 2000 alone; and the company's vice chairman and chief financial officer were paid a total of $50 million that year. But the money helped allow Enron extraordinary access and even influence over state and federal political processes. Its business was helped immensely by the movement to deregulate energy markets.

A spokeswoman for the Democratic committee said it doesn't want Enron's money and that it was looking for an appropriate charity to which the cash could be redirected, perhaps to benefit Enron's ex-employees. This week, Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee demanded that the Federal Trade Commission investigate why company executives were allowed to cash out their stock while other employees were prevented from selling the company's sinking shares in their retirement accounts.

NEXT

Joined at the Hip
The New York Times – by Bob Herbert – January 12, 2002
Snip

Enron was a bonanza for — whom else? — the folks at the top of the pyramid. They ferociously exploited their gilt-edged political connections and harvested breathtaking amounts of cash for themselves, even as the company was collapsing into the biggest bankruptcy mess in U.S. history. Left behind were thousands of ordinary working men and women, people with families and obligations, who lost jobs, life savings, pensions, the works. And more carnage is to come.

The fallout is nationwide. A week before Christmas, Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, spoke about the gloom that had settled over workers in his state who watched their retirement funds vanish. "Because of what happened at Enron," he said, "there are Oregon families going to grief counseling rather than holiday parties this year."

No one knows yet the extent of the illegality — if any — that went on at Enron. The Justice Department announced yesterday that it was launching a criminal investigation. But there is no doubt that many of the company's top officials swam, as a matter of course, in an ethical sewer. They were pals with, and lavishly greased the palms of, powerful people who were willing to guide government policy toward Enron's ends, and who could help the company escape close scrutiny of its more sinister activities.

The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog agency in Washington, examined the political contributions of 29 top Enron executives and directors named in a shareholder lawsuit filed against the company last month. Twenty-four of the 29 made contributions from 1999 to 2001 — totaling nearly $800,000 — to George W. Bush, members of Congress, the two national political parties (with the bulk of the contributions going to the Republicans) and a variety of officials who are now responsible for investigating possible securities fraud by Enron.

NEXT
Washington Disowns Enron
The New York Times – by R. Oppel Jr., D. Van Natta Jr. – January 13, 2002
Snip

Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, said yesterday, "President Bush's explanation of his relationship to Enron is at best a half truth. He was in bed with Enron before he ever held a political office
Snip

By the late 1980's, Mr. Lay, an economist by training, had become a major force in Houston business and social circles as chief executive of Enron, then primarily a natural gas pipeline operator. He also became a significant fund-raiser for Mr. Bush's father and was working to bring the Bush presidential library to Houston.
In that time, Mr. Lay has said, he got to know the younger Mr. Bush. "That's when I probably spent a little more quality time with George W.," he told The Morning News. Later, Mr. Lay was picked to head the host committee for the 1992 Republican convention in Houston.
Snip

As governor, Mr. Bush was an advocate of the issue most important to Mr. Lay and Enron, deregulating the utility business. Mr. Bush also appointed Patrick H. Wood III to be chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, an appointment that Mr. Lay had recommended. Mr. Wood is now chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where he oversaw and supported the imposition last year of electricity price restraints in California opposed by Enron and other unregulated power companies.
Snip

Mr. Bush also has done favors for Mr. Lay, such as later that year when, at Mr. Lay's request, he called Tom Ridge, then the governor of Pennsylvania and now the director of Homeland Security, to vouch for Enron, which was trying to break in to that state's electricity markets.

NEXT

Investigate Enron Ties to Government
Star Tribune – by Dan Brown - January 13, 2002

Enron executives have disclosed that they met with the Bush administration just one day before the administration determined not to assist California in its Enron-created energy crisis, by not imposing price caps and allowing Enron to further gouge Californian energy consumers, potentially bankrupting California energy providers and endangering the stability of the government of California.
The White House has disclosed that Enron executives met with at least two Cabinet-level Bush administration officials prior to the Enron collapse and discussed the precarious Enron financial situation.

These Bush administration officials have a fiduciary duty to oversee U.S. pension accounts, yet those officials determined to "do nothing."

The White House has further disclosed that President Bush learned of Enron's impending collapse "last fall," in the words of White House spokesman Ari Fleischer -- yet Bush, who now says through spokesmen that he wants to make sure that this "doesn't happen again" to the pension accounts of innocent victims, did nothing to see that it didn't happen the first time.

We already know that more than 29 Bush administration officials are former Enron executives or shareholders. We know that Ken Lay and Enron bankrolled Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. We know too that Enron was the second largest contributor to John Ashcroft's Senate campaign as well; more than $61,000 came from Enron and Lay.

Further, we now know that Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, to whom the investigation has fallen upon Attorney General Ashcroft's recusal, also has ties to Enron, which makes it impossible for Thompson to lead an investigation of this magnitude. Thompson worked for the law firm of King and Spalding from 1977 to 1982, served as a U.S. Attorney under the Reagan administration, and returned to King and Spalding as a partner in 1986. He stayed at the firm until his appointment as deputy attorney general in 2001.
Snip

The Enron story is about the spectacular failure of the deregulation nightmare unleashed on us by President Ronald Reagan and resurrected by George W. Bush. Enron was a product of deregulated Texas under then-Gov. Bush.

The Enron story is about control of the government of the United States by the highest bidder. Ken Lay and Enron built Bush.

NEXT

Enron Insiders
Employee Advocate – DukeEmployees.com – January 14, 2002

Many investors and employees have suffered as Enron’s stock crashed. But one group came out smelling like a rose, according to The New York Times, the company insiders.

These insiders liquidated $1.1 billion worth of stock between 1999 and mid 2001. Mr. Lay took in $101.3 million; a former subsidiary chairman, $353.7 million; a director, $79.5 million; another director, $75.2 million; former CEO, $66.9 million; and the former CFO raked in $30 million.

A "unlawful insider trading" lawsuit has been filed against twenty-nine defendants.
A congressman has questioned Mr. Lay, in a letter, about his touting of the stock to employees, shortly before the crash.

NEXT

Dancing with the Devil
The New York Times – by Bob Herbert – January 18, 2002

When Senator Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy danced, it was most often to Enron's tune.
Mr. Gramm, a Texas Republican, is one of the top recipients of Enron largess in the Senate. And he is a demon for deregulation. In December 2000 Mr. Gramm was one of the ringleaders who engineered the stealthlike approval of a bill that exempted energy commodity trading from government regulation and public disclosure. It was a gift tied with a bright ribbon for Enron.

Wendy Gramm has been influential in her own right. She, too, is a demon for deregulation. She headed the presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief in the Reagan administration. And she was chairwoman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1988 until 1993.

In her final days with the commission she helped push through a ruling that exempted many energy futures contracts from regulation, a move that had been sought by Enron. Five weeks later, after resigning from the commission, Wendy Gramm was appointed to Enron's board of directors.

NEXT

A Scandal So Good That It Hurts
L. A. Times – by John Balzar – January 21, 2002
Snip

Yes, George W. Bush is culpable: This freight train crashed on his watch. These were his back-slapping buddies. These are the people he entrusted with government. This is the way-of-life philosophy he championed.

Let's not forget that just a few weeks ago he denounced Democrats for stalling on a multimillion-dollar, retroactive tax break for Enron and other giant companies.

Let's remember that his top economics advisor, a former Enron retainer, views the collapse of the company as "a triumph for capitalism." Let's not overlook that his Treasury secretary sees Enron as evidence of the "genius of capitalism." Let's not overlook that his choice to run the GOP has decided to stay on the payroll of a law firm retained by Enron and reserves the right to moonlight as a strategic advisor for the company.

NEXT

Deregulation Aids Enron’s Looting
Public Citizen – www.citizen.org - January 22, 2002

12/21/01 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — After Enron Corp. used its vast web of political connections to win December 2000 passage of commodities trading legislation that helped the company shield its energy trading activities from government scrutiny, California’s energy crisis suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse as artificial supply shortages led to frequent rolling blackouts, according to a new Public Citizen report released Friday.

The legislation reducing government oversight of energy trading was muscled through Congress — without a Senate committee hearing — with the aid of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over the legislation he co-sponsored, but he chose to bypass his committee, and the bill was quietly tacked onto a "must-pass" appropriations bill late in the session. Gramm’s wife, Wendy Gramm, also aided Enron’s rise to power. As chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, she pushed through a key regulatory exemption on Jan. 14, 1993, just as she was about to leave office. Five weeks later, she joined Enron’s board of directors, where she served on the board’s audit committee and had access to key financial information about the company. On Sept. 4 of this year, Sen. Gramm announced that he would not run for re-election in 2002. Then in November, shareholders and federal regulators learned the extent of Enron’s financial troubles. Since the revelations, the company has filed the largest corporate bankruptcy in history, and shareholders, lenders and Enron employees have lost billions of dollars.

"Millions of people in California paid outrageously inflated prices for electricity because of Enron’s ability to manipulate the markets for electricity and natural gas, and thousands of Enron employees and shareholders have been devastated because of insider dealing and financial trickery," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "Republicans in Congress investigated Whitewater for years and spent millions of dollars. But that pales in comparison to Enron-gate. Congress needs to turn over every rock and see what crawls out from underneath. They should ask, who knew what and when did they know it? Investigations into any criminal conduct should extend to the political players who aided and abetted this company’s rapacious rampage across America. We should make no distinction between the officers who committed these acts and the politicians who enabled them."

Public Citizen called on Congress to force Wendy and Phil Gramm and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill to testify under oath about their knowledge of Enron’s alleged accounting fraud and use of offshore tax and bank regulation havens. Public Citizen also said that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and political adviser Karl Rove should also be required to answer questions about whether administration officials discussed policies involving energy price controls, other energy regulations or tax havens with Enron representatives. Bush adamantly resisted price controls even though California’s wholesale energy costs had almost quadrupled in 2000; at the same time, Enron’s trading revenues nearly tripled.

NEXT

NEXT

Enron’s Smoking Gun
Salon – by Anthony York –

Jan. 16, 2002 - Remember the California energy crisis? As the implications of the collapse of Enron spiral ever wider, increasing attention is being paid to the close connections between the White House and the Texas energy trader. So far, there has been no evidence that Bush officials tried to stave off the Enron disaster. But the real smoking gun for Enron could be its role in the California energy deregulation debacle.

Vice President Cheney has already admitted that he and Enron CEO Ken Lay discussed the California situation in some of their six meetings last year, leading some critics to believe that Bush's hands-off policy toward California was done at Enron's bidding. Lay was also instrumental in replacing the chairman of the federal commission that regulates energy issues with his own nominee, after the original chairman refused to kowtow to Enron's wishes on electricity deregulation. A California state Senate committee is currently calling for depositions of Enron and Arthur Andersen officials to find out if the former energy giant or its auditors willfully destroyed documents that were under subpoena from the committee. And an ongoing criminal investigation by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is still looking into allegations that energy producers and traders, including Enron, artificially manipulated the price of energy to profit off of California's poorly constructed energy deregulation plan.

Enron officials once took pains to note that California's problems could not be blamed on energy producers but on not having deregulated enough. But it's now becoming apparent that Enron was as responsible as anyone for the shape of that deregulation plan. As the Enron mess continues to heat up, California could prove to be the company's biggest political embarrassment…

NEXT

Ex-Enron Official Commits Suicide
Associated Press – by Kristen Hays – January 26, 2002
HOUSTON, Jan 25, 2002 - A former Enron Corp. executive who reportedly challenged the company's questionable financial practices and resigned last May was found shot to death in a car Friday, an apparent suicide.
Snip
Baxter was identified by name in the explosive warning that Enron executive Sherron Watkins wrote last August to company chairman Ken Lay.

"Cliff Baxter complained mightily to (then-CEO Jeff) Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM," Watkins wrote. LJM is one of the partnerships that kept hundreds of millions of dollars in debt off Enron's books.

NEXT

Enron Influence
Associated Press – by Alan Clendenning – January 26, 2002

The political contributions were "something every company does to support like-minded individuals that support the efforts of a particular company," said the spokesman, Eric Thode.
And he said it was a "travesty" that people might criticize Enron's charitable donations, saying "it's a figment of the imagination that there is anything sinister about being a good corporate citizen."
Of the $5.77 million in contributions to candidates the company has made since 1989, nearly three-fourths went to Republicans. In the 2000 election, it gave $2.4 million to individual candidates, political action committees and soft money contributions to political parties, said the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group.

Over those 12 years, according to the center, 71 current senators and 188 House members have benefited from Enron's donations. Topping the list were Texas' two Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm, each receiving almost $100,000, and seven Texan representatives led by Democrat Ken Bentsen with $42,750.
Enron was a major contributor to the Bush presidential campaign and donated $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney inaugural gala last a year ago, a sum matched by Lay and his wife.

Gramm's wife Wendy is on Enron's board and also served on its audit committee, which is supposed to keep a close watch on the company's financial practices. By their own accounting, the Gramms lost nearly $700,000 in stock options when the company went under. Wendy Gramm collected between $915,000 and $1.85 million from Enron in salary, attendance fees, stock options and dividends between 1993 and 2001, according to Public Citizen, a Washington watchdog group.

NEXT

Enron: Not the Only Bad Apple
Guardian Unlimited– February 2, 2002
The deregulation of the energy industry is rotten to the core, writes Greg Palast
Snip

All together, Enron and half a dozen others skinned purchasers for more than $12bn in excess charges. That's the calculation of Calfornia's utility watchdog as presented to federal regulators in a damning petition for refunds.

Here's an example of how Enron's po' widdle stockholders, hero Baxter and chairman Ken Lay made their loot.
Soon after California dumbly deregulated its power markets, Enron sold 500 megawatts of power to the state for delivery over a 15-megawatt line. Very cute, that: the company knew darn well the juice couldn't make it over the line, causing panic in the state - customers would then pay 10 times the normal cost to keep the lights on and traders could cash in.

The federal regulator caught that one. Within weeks of taking office, George Bush demoted the troublesome official. Lay boasted to one candidate expected to replace the sacked regulator that President Bush had given Enron veto over the government appointment.

NEXT

Texas Deregulation Not Too Smooth
Employee Advocate – DukeEmployees.com – February 18, 2002

The Texas electricity market has been deregulated, but consumers are not running to jump onto the bandwagon, according to the Houston Chronicle. Few consumers have switched to new providers.
Apparently the average consumer is not interested in jumping through hoops to try to save a few pennies on electricity. The lure of saving pocket change caused the rates of many in California to quadruple! Even then, the power was not always available!
Reliable, regulated power at a reasonable price is always preferable to unstable power with even more unstable prices, that come with some gimmick. It should be obvious to all, by now, that the only ones to really profit from deregulation are power suppliers and traders. They designed the deregulation rules. And, they designed the rules to benefit only themselves.

NEXT

Bush Advisor Offered to Help Enron
Washington Post – by Joe Stephens – February 23, 2002

Just before the last presidential election, Bush campaign adviser Ralph Reed offered to help Enron Corp. deregulate the electricity industry by working his "good friends" in Washington and by mobilizing religious leaders and pro-family groups for the cause.

For a $380,000 fee, the conservative political strategist proposed a broad lobbying strategy that included using major campaign contributors, conservative talk shows and nonprofits to press Congress for favorable legislation. Reed said he could place letters from community leaders in the opinion pages of major newspapers, producing clips that Reed would "blast fax" to Capitol Hill.

"We are a loyal member of your team and are prepared to do whatever fits your strategic plan," Reed wrote in an Oct. 23, 2000, memo obtained by The Washington Post.

"In public policy," he wrote, "it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard -- and by whom."

Finally, Reed said he had enjoyed "great success" in using conservative news-talk programs to spread his clients' message to "faith-based activists."

"Our public relations team has extensive experience booking guests on talk radio shows, and has excellent working relationships with many hosts," he wrote, proposing a $30,000 fee.

"We look forward to working with Enron," he said.

NEXT

Energy Donors Met Cheney Panel
New York Times – by D. Van Natta, N. Banerjee – March 2, 2002

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 — Eighteen of the energy industry's top 25 financial contributors to the Republican Party advised Vice President Dick Cheney's national energy task force last year, according to interviews and election records.

Critics of the Bush administration's energy policy have long suspected that many of the corporations that were invited to advise the White House were large energy concerns that had contributed heavily to President Bush's campaign and the Republican Party in 2000. The White House has refused to release the names of the companies and individuals consulted during the formulation of the administration's energy policy last spring. It has been sued for the information.

But interviews and task force correspondence demonstrate an apparent correlation between large campaign contributions and access to Mr. Cheney's task force. Of the top 25 energy industry donors to the Republican Party before the November 2000 election, 18 corporations sent executives or representatives to meet with Mr. Cheney, the task force chairman, or members of the task force and its staff. The companies include the Enron Corporation, the Southern Company, the Exelon Corporation, BP, the TXU Corporation, FirstEnergy and Anadarko Petroleum.

Critics of the process said that President Bush and Mr. Cheney were quick to respond to executives from the energy sector not only because of campaign contributions but also because they share the philosophy of the oil patch, where both made fortunes.

NEXT

Previous Enron Fraud Convictions
New York Times – by Corey Kilgannon – March 6, 2002
Enron executives made millions on fraudulent trades, and this was followed by Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. And top Enron officials said they knew nothing.
It all happened 15 years ago in an inconspicuous office park in Westchester County, N.Y.

An Enron subsidiary, the Enron Oil Corporation, set up its office in Valhalla, N.Y., in 1985. By October 1987, the S.E.C. had begun investigating the two top executives there, and the office was shut. Though a far cry from the dimensions of the current scandal, the financial finagling does have eerily similar elements. In October 1987, the S.E.C. accused Louis J. Borget, then the unit's president, and Thomas N. Mastroeni, its secretary-treasurer, of executing sham oil trades over those years.

The two men, court documents show, set up fake offshore companies to disguise the trades and falsified records to conceal them from company officials in Houston.

The two executives pleaded guilty in federal court in White Plains to fraud-related charges and tax evasion. Mr. Borget served a year in jail, and Mr. Mastroeni was put on two years' probation and ordered to do 400 hours of community service. This previous Enron scandal was the subject of a recent article in The Financial Times.

The fake oil trades cost Enron more than $136 million in losses. At the time, Kenneth L. Lay, the chairman, called the loss an "expensive embarrassment."

NEXT

Electricity Should Not Be Deregulated
The Orlando Sentinel – by Christopher Boyd – December 30, 2001
Dec. 10--

When Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a special commission last year to draft a blueprint for opening Florida's electricity industry to competition, the prospects for major change seemed certain.

NEXT

Enron Spotlights Void In Regulations

The Wall Street Journal – by M. Schroeder, G. Ip – December 30, 2001
(12/13/01) - WASHINGTON -- A year ago, when most of the political world was obsessed with the deadlocked presidential election, Enron Corp. was quietly but aggressively lobbying Congress. Its object: a little-noticed bill shaping federal policy toward the complex financial instruments known as over-the-counter derivatives.
Snip

The company's lobbying campaign was so aggressive that staff members of one congressional committee asked a lobbyist for an Enron-led industry group to negotiate major aspects of the bill directly with regulators. In the end, Enron had provisions inserted in the law that blocked federal oversight of some of its major corporate product lines, such as energy and metals derivatives, and its EnronOnline energy-trading network.
Snip

In late 2000, Enron won sweeping legislative guarantees against future regulation of its trading businesses. People involved in negotiating the Commodity Futures Modernization Act say that Enron representatives were fanatical about preventing any hint of derivatives regulation. Its refusal to budge put it at odds with some moderate members of its own lobbying coalition, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Raisler denied that there was any such split.

NEXT

Power Executives Score Big Bonuses
San Diego Channel 10 News - March 4, 2001

Consumer Groups Call Bonuses Corporate Greed
Executives at two companies that have sold electricity at high prices during California's power crunch were compensated handsomely for their work.

In federal filings, officials at Enron of Texas and Duke Energy of North Carolina report they received millions in bonus pay last year.
The two companies tie executive pay to profits and stock performance.
Though Enron does not generate power in California, the company collects seven percent of its operating revenue by trading power as a commodity in the state.

Enron's chairman, Ken Lay, received nearly $16 million in stock and cash above his $1.3 million salary last year. That compares with less than $4 million in bonuses in 1999.

NEXT

Duke Energy Praises Bush
Duke Energy Employee Advocate - May 19, 2001

The title of Duke's press release says it all: "Duke Energy Praises Bush Blueprint to Meet America's Energy Needs."

Duke's man is in the White House. The energy companies own Bush, and Bush is delivering. Who is surprised? Why should they not be praising him? They know that they have four years of getting anything that they want.

NEXT

Cheney Energy Task Force Under Investigation
ABC News - June 20, 2001

The investigative arm of Congress has launched an inquiry into Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force and its ties to energy companies, ABCNEWS has confirmed.

The General Accounting Office is investigating the Bush administration's energy task force and its ties to the energy industry, ABCNEWS has confirmed.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, has launched an inquiry into the White House National Energy Policy Development Group at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

Administration sources say the White House is refusing to turn over certain documents to the GAO relating to the group's meetings with industry officials.

NEXT

Testimonies Point to Power Manipulation
The Orange County Register - By KIMBERLY KINDY - June 23, 2001
Davis calls account of ex-Duke Energy workers a potential 'smoking gun.'

Three former workers at a Duke Energy plant moved from obscurity into the national spotlight Friday as they became the first eyewitnesses to provide sworn testimony accusing a generator of unethical - and perhaps illegal - conduct in California's energy crisis.

Gov. Gray Davis called the men "heroes," and before the first witness even completed his testimony, he invited them and their families to have breakfast with him Monday.

"If these allegations are true, it might be the smoking gun we thought existed all along."

NEXT
U.S. Report Finds Flaws in Study of California Power Companies
New York Times - By JOSEPH KAHN - June 30, 2001

An investigative arm of Congress faulted federal regulators today for claiming that there was no evidence to support accusations that power companies manipulated California's electricity market.
The General Accounting Office reviewed a study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued in February. The energy agency found no evidence that companies withheld power to drive up prices.

Politicians in California and some economists have been asserting for months that power companies withheld available electrical generating capacity to create or worsen shortages. Generating companies had cited the energy agency's report to rebut those accusations.

The accounting office said the agency's work looked only at physical reasons for outages and did not explore the possibility that generating companies used bidding strategies to withhold supplies. Moreover, the office found that the study did not prove that cutoffs had occurred for unavoidable physical reasons.

NEXT

Enron’s Biggest Losers: Employees
The New York Times – by Paul Krugman – December 5, 2001
Snip

But the sad fate of Enron's employees highlights the difference between theory and practice. As Gretchen Morgenson of The Times pointed out on Sunday, workers across the country have been cajoled or coerced into holding a high proportion of their retirement assets in their employers' own stock. The exploitive nature of this financial incest was emphasized by Enron's now-notorious "lockdown," in which — purely by coincidence, say executives — new rules forced employees to remain invested in the company's stock just as the firm began its death spiral. So much for freedom of choice.

NEXT

Execs Got $55 Million Before Bankruptcy
Forbes – by N. Weinberg, L. Cook – December 6, 2001

NEW YORK - Enron paid out $55 million in bonuses to executives and other employees two days prior to filing for bankruptcy, the company confirmed today. A total of 500 employees received bonuses.

NEXT
The Enron Debacle and Electric Power Deregulation
by Mike De Rosa
Snip

Ken Lay's Enron played a major role in lobbying electric deregulation in the Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, and Pennsylvania state legislatures. I even spotted them here in CT pushing their deregulation schemes when the top leadership of the CT legislature and Governor Rowland rolled over and passed a electric "restructuring" bill mostly orchestrated by an army of lobbyists fueled by millions of dollars from energy companies. In Pennsylvania, then Texas governor George W. Bush even called then Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge to encourage him to support deregulation of electricity in Pennsylvania.

George W. Bush strongly supported and signed an electric deregulation law in Texas at the behest of Ken Lay and Enron.

Enron was successful in pushing through electric power deregulation in 24 state legislatures, which made it possible for them to create the "markets" they needed to rip off consumers. Some experts say that Enron played a significant role in the recent astronomical increases in electric rates in California and other states. According to the National Institute of Money in State Politics, Enron's lobbying included more than $1.9 Million in campaign contributions to more than 700 candidates in 28 states. They met with utilities commissioners and worked in close tandem with other energy companies to make sure that electric power privatization passed in legislatures across the country. The massive political and lobbying power of these energy companies drowned out the voices of consumer groups and environmental groups who had serious questions and doubts about electric restructuring. These corporate victories set the stage for an "energy crisis" in California and other states.

http://www.gp.org/articles/derosa_03_02_02.html

NEXT

Texas Deregulated Utility Protest
Star-Telegram – by R. A. Dyer – May 10, 2002
(5/9/02) -

AUSTIN - As many as 150,000 TXU customers have gone without bills - some for as long as four months - because of continuing problems with electric deregulation in Texas, a top company official said Wednesday.
Snip

Sanchez noted that a Perry appointee to the Texas Public Utility Commission was a former Enron executive, and that the PUC recently voted to inflate electric rates in a way that indirectly benefits an Enron offshoot company.

NEXT

Companies Knew Deregulation Would Hurt Public
Associated Press – April 8, 2002

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Enron executives have been cooperating with a Senate committee investigating the state's energy crisis, under threat of a Senate vote to find them in contempt of a legislative subpoena, the committee's chairman said Wednesday.

Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove, said Senate investigators have gone to Houston to review documents there, and plan a trip to Enron's Portland, Ore., office, which is the energy trader's West Coast hub.
Investigators have unearthed evidence that energy companies, which pushed deregulation as a way to lower consumers' costs, knew the state's experiment with deregulation would result in a volatile electricity market, Dunn said.

The now-bankrupt energy giant led the push for the state to deregulate its energy market in 1996, which was ``perhaps the greatest fraud ever perpetrated against consumers,'' Dunn said.

NEXT

California in State of Emergency Over Power
New York Times - By JAMES STERNGOLD - January 18, 2001

Gov. Gray Davis of California declared a state of emergency late this evening after the state was forced to cut power temporarily for hundreds of thousands of people on a swath from Oregon to Bakersfield.

While planned, controlled blackouts have occurred before in the state on a modest scale, this was the first time that they were carried out over such a large area. And despite frantic efforts by utilities and state officials to line up enough power for later in the week, the prospect of continuing blackouts put pressure on the governor to step in and take emergency actions.

NEXT

Price Manipulation Whistleblower
Dow Jones – by Jason Leopold – February 26, 2002
(2/20/02) - LOS ANGELES -- A former Enron Corp. employee has written a letter to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer claiming that he has knowledge the company's trading arm manipulated wholesale electricity prices in California.

For more than a year, California Gov. Gray Davis and other state officials have alleged that energy companies, including Enron, manipulated the price of electricity and natural gas in the state by withholding supplies to create an artificial shortage and gouging utilities by charging prices for power that were 10 times higher compared with previous years.

NEXT

Bush Signals California is on its Own
L. A. Times - January 19, 2001

President-elect George W. Bush on Thursday dismissed the price caps sought by Gov. Gray Davis as a way out of California's deepening electricity crisis, and instead proposed relaxing environmental rules that he said keep the state's power plants from running full tilt.
"It's their law," Bush said in the AP interview, referring to the state's 1996 deregulation legislation. "California is going to have to address and correct the law that has caused some of this to happen."

The president-elect and his chief economic advisor, Lawrence B. Lindsey, discounted the danger that the state's problems pose for the national economy. "It remains to be seen how long and severe the effects will be," Lindsey said in an interview.

Snip---

And in a separate interview with CNN, (Bush) put much of the blame for the state's problems on strict environmental rules. "If there's any environmental regulations that's preventing California from having a 100% max output at their plants--as I understand there may be--then we need to relax those regulations," he said

NEXT.

Proof Enron Forced Up Energy Prices
New York Times – by R. Oppel, J. Gerth – May 8, 2002
WASHINGTON, May 6 — Electricity traders at Enron drove up prices during the California power crisis through questionable techniques that company lawyers said "may have contributed" to severe power shortages, according to internal Enron documents released today by federal regulators.
NEXT
Enron’s Smoking Gun Found
Associated Press – by Mark Sherman - May 9, 2002

A confidential Enron document released by federal energy regulators Monday showed how traders for the now-bankrupt energy company drove up power prices during last year's California power crisis.
Written by Enron lawyers, the December 2000 memorandum lists practices described by California officials who say the energy trading company created phantom congestion on energy transmission lines and engaged in sham power sales between its affiliates to increase electricity prices.

Referring to a strategy called "Death Star" by Enron traders, the lawyers wrote, "The net effect of these transactions is that Enron gets paid for moving energy to relieve congestion without actually moving any energy or relieving any congestion."

NEXT

FORGET ARNOLD, BLACKOUT PETE WILSON IS THE ELECTRIC TERMINATOR Harvey Wasserman, Aug. 18, 2003

Wilson was the Republican governor of California in 1996 when he made utility deregulation the centerpiece of his doomed campaign for president. Competition in the electric power business, said Wilson, would usher in a new age of lower prices. The "miracle of the marketplace" would mean better, cheaper, more reliable electricity from a host of competing suppliers.

Deregulation is also the centerpiece of Schwarzenegger's campaign for Wilson's old job. The Terminator isn't allowed to say much. But the few short sentences he does utter seem to have something to do with policies that would mirror what Wilson did when he set the utilities free.

Unfortunately, what Wilson did led directly to the staged rolling blackouts of 2000-1. As we now know, those blackouts were actually a form of blackmail used by Texas gas companies to rob California of more than $60 billion. Among the chief perpetrators were Kenny-Boy Lay of the now-bankrupt Enron (George W. Bush's number one campaign contributor) and James Baker, George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State, the man the GOP sent to Florida to finally fix the election of 2000.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0818-11.htm

New push to deregulate energy

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.

Although the new Republican governor-elect will be consumed at first with tackling the state's budget woes, his advisers say he will push changes next year aimed at lowering energy costs for industry and large power users while encouraging energy firms to build more power plants to help meet rising demand.

The actor-turned-politician made little mention of his plan to reduce state regulation of energy markets during the recall race, devoting his time instead to bashing Gov. Gray Davis for saddling the state with expensive long-term contracts for power. But with many of those contracts set to expire in the next two years, the governor-elect will have to present his solutions or risk facing his own energy crisis.

Schwarzenegger's energy strategy is being driven by some of the same members of former Gov. Pete Wilson's team who led the push for energy deregulation in the mid-1990s. The governor-elect, for example, picked for his transition team Jessie Knight, a former Wilson appointee to the Public Utilities Commission and a leading proponent of deregulation.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/11/MN20927.DTL

A very informative compendium of these articles may be found at:

http://dukeemployees.com/deregulation1.shtml

THE REPUBLICAN WAY. IMPEACH BU$H NOW!

[Zorra]

1. Kick

[salib]

2. Wow, A lot of scrolling just to

KICK!

Excellent collection in one place.

[Zorra]

3. I'm hoping some journalists can use the link at the bottom.

Lot's of history about Bu$h, Lay and Enron in the articles collected in that link.

[teach1st]

4. Thanks!

And a kick.

[Zorra]

5. Kick

[Zorra]

6. Soundbyte.

[donhakman]

7. I am shocked to hear there is gambling in this establishment