Enron gouged Western customers for at least $1.1 billion, public utility says

By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

The Public Utility District (PUD) analyzed the records in hopes of defending itself against a $122 million lawsuit filed by Enron, which has accused it of illegally breaking its contracts with the company. The utility claims the contract was void because Enron engaged in fraudulent business practices to drive up the cost of energy during the 2000-01 power crunch.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., used the evidence to demand a new investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. She said the agency's colossal failure to uncover Enron's schemes wound up hurting thousands of energy customers, and that FERC tried to keep the utility from getting access to Enron's tapes.

"When are you going to give justice to the individuals who have been hurt by this Enron market manipulation?" Cantwell asked. "If the federal oversight regulators aren't going to do their job, then they should get out of the way and quit obstructing justice."

Energy traders routinely keep tapes of their phone calls as a record of oral contracts. Last month, the PUD unveiled profanity-laced transcripts of Enron traders gleefully joking about stealing money from "those poor grandmothers" in California during the state's energy crunch.

The utility today released more than 750 pages of financial documents dated from January 2000 to mid-June 2001 that it said show Enron manipulated the market on 473 of the 537 days during that period.

Among the records were accounting sheets that showed how Enron executed its trading schemes, said utility lawyer Eric Christensen. In one example of a "ricochet" scheme, Enron made $222,678 in a three-hour period by shipping power from California to Oregon, masking the original source of the power, and then selling it back to California for $750 per megawatt hour.

The PUD is also seeking to convince a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission administrative law judge that Enron should be ordered to surrender up to $2 billion in ill-gotten gains.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California want their state to receive at least $8.9 billion in refunds and an order that long-term contracts made under manipulated prices be re-negotiated.

An administrative law judge's finding that Enron should forfeit $32.5 million in unjust profits is pending before FERC. Enron refused to comment on the records except to say it is cooperating with all investigations.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More snohomish county news headlines...