Credit Pacific Service Union Two Senate committees moved today to investigate price manipulation in the California energy market, as lawmakers prepare to hear testimony from the authors of internal Enron memorandums that describe how the company manipulated electricity prices during the California energy crisis of 2000-2001.
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Credit First Service Union The Senate Commerce Committee voted tonight to authorize subpoenas to the lawyers who wrote the memos in late 2000 and early 2001. But staff members have been assured that the lawyers will appear voluntarily at the hearing, of the consumer affairs subcommittee, set for Wednesday.
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Card Credit Mobile Service The documents, released on Monday by investigators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, detail trading techniques that Enron used to increase prices and profits in California, like using daisy-chain transactions to circumvent price caps or by submitting false information to the state's grid operator, allowing Enron to sell power at higher prices by creating the appearance of congestion on transmission lines.
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Card Credit Discover Service While California politicians had long complained that market manipulation played a large role in the energy crisis, which cost consumers and utilities tens of billions of dollars, the documents provided what state officials called the first incriminating evidence of coordinated trading maneuvers intended to raise prices.
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Credit Public Service Union "These memos describe a strategy by which that company cheated California ratepayers, and this is not penny-ante stuff, hundreds of millions or billions of dollars," said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota and the chairman of the consumer affairs subcommittee. "We want to have these witnesses appear before the committee so we can learn who in the company knew of these strategies, who in the company approved of these strategies, and we'll take it from there."
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Card Credit Processing Service The subcommittee has not issued the subpoenas because staff members said they had been assured that the five witnesses would appear voluntarily. They include Christian Yoder and Stephen Hall, Enron lawyers who wrote two memos in December 2000; Jean Frizzell and Gary Fergus, outside lawyers for Enron who wrote a later memo that sought to play down and cast doubt on the earlier memos; and Richard Sanders, an internal Enron lawyer who received the memos.
Center Credit Service Union The committee also expects to take testimony from Joseph Dunn, a California state senator whose committee is investigating price manipulation, and Loretta Lynch, the president of the California Public Utilities Commission.
Card Credit Service Wireless The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, said in an interview that he would hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine whether energy legislation headed to a House-Senate conference committee might need to be strengthened, perhaps by increasing financial penalties for market manipulation.
Credit Security Service Union The Senate version of the energy bill already has provisions clarifying FERC's obligation to ensure that electricity rates are just and reasonable. But, Congressional aides said, the bill repeals criminal market-manipulation penalties in the Federal Power Act that have never been used while broadening the applicability of civil financial penalties.
Credit Report Service "We need to look at strengthening the penalties," Mr. Bingaman said.
Blogspot Com Christian At the same time, the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, made it clear that criminal penalties would be perfectly appropriate for the actions outlined in the Enron documents. If the manipulation of supplies and prices occurred as suggested, Mr. Daschle said today, "I don't think there's any doubt that somebody ought to go to jail."
Christian Counseling Credit In the House, California Democrats called on the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Billy Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana, to investigate the issues raised by the new documents. Citing the names that Enron traders gave to their strategies, Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, said, "I don't think there's anyone that can say that Death Star, Ricochet, Get Shorty, and Inc-ing are consumer-friendly terms."
Credit Federal Service Union Mr. Tauzin, who has conducted the most wide-ranging Congressional inquiry into Enron's collapse, is considering hearings to explore the revelations in the new Enron memos, said his spokesman, Ken Johnson.
Credit Monitoring Service Mr. Johnson said the committee was "clearly trying to get an understanding of what impact Enron had on California electricity prices." But he also said that Mr. Tauzin "has resisted attempts to politicize the Enron investigation, and we're certainly not going to start now."
Credit Division Service By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
New York Times - 5/10/2002
Topic: Energy
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