Where Was FERC When the Lights Went Out?

  • SF Chronicle: Death Star’ trader admits manipulating California market. The Enron Corp. energy trader who devised the notorious “Death Star” scheme to bill California for fictitious electricity pleaded guilty in a San Francisco court to a federal fraud charge and admitted plotting to manipulate the market during the state’s energy crisis.

  • Who else should be indicted? An e-mail correspondent this morning points to one of the worst offenders in this scandal: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where inaction in the face of utter sleaze is a way of life.

    Instead of helping California and the other states that got screwed by the bandits at Enron and other energy companies, FERC has consistently stiffed the victims, offering a tidbit here and there but essentially doing nothing serious.

    FERC keeps insisting that it’s on the case. We’ll need some actual evidence one of these days.

    Comments


    Posted by: tim on August 6, 2004 08:23 AM

    Dan what is especially outrageous is that Enron is at least proximately responsible for the California budget crisis. Price gouging and long term power contracts that resulted from price gouging significantly contributed to the CA budget overrun. There were the lawsuits to recover the windfall profits, but remember how those settled for pennies on the dollar? Greg Palast alleges that Gov. Schwarzenegger aranged with Ken Lay and co. before the election to settle those lawsuits for pennies on the dollar.

    Palast has written about this pretty extensively over on his site, although he does depend on some anonymous sources. Not sure if all of his allegations have been substantiated by other independent research, but I think it’s worth examining.


    Posted by: on August 6, 2004 09:06 AM

    Some fun contemplation: getting the money back, and renegotiating the existing contracts, was a big part of Gray Davis’ agenda.

    How big a part of Ahnuld’s is it?


    Posted by: on August 6, 2004 11:42 AM

    You know I don’t think the Repugnant flying monkees are just in Kansas anymore Toto.


    Posted by: on August 6, 2004 11:54 AM

    You piker Dan! What about the famous ‘ Donkee punch!’

    On Aug. 5, 2000, two unidentified traders discuss how a wildfire in California has reduced the ability of a transmission line to carry electricity, boosting the value of power and the profits on their electricity trades.

    PERSON 2: The magical word of the day is ”Burn, Baby, Burn” —

    PERSON 1: What’s happening?

    PERSON 2: There’s a fire under the core line. It’s been de-rated from 45 to 2,100.

    PERSON 1: Really?

    PERSON 2: Yup.

    TOGETHER: Burn, baby, burn.

    PERSON 1: That’s a beautiful saying.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to thoroughly review its web site and remove pornographic emails written by Enron employees. Federal rules ban employees from even looking at the kind of material that FERC has published on the internet.

    “It’s just another example that FERC is not reviewing the Enron documents they have in their possession to build a case against Enron,” said Cantwell. “Instead, FERC is posting pornographic email from Enron employees describing various lewd acts that are the inspiration for the codes names of their schemes to gouge ratepayers.”

    Evidence provided by Senator Cantwell and the Snohomish County PUD Monday revealed that Enron used an energy market manipulation scheme code named “Donkey Punch” – a crude pornographic term –
    Meaning?

    Something a stalking troll might want to do to you?


    Posted by: on August 6, 2004 12:20 PM

    “Instead of helping California and the other states that got screwed by the bandits at Enron and other energy companies, FERC has consistently stiffed the victims, offering a tidbit here and there but essentially doing nothing serious.”

    Let’s see, FERC and the DOJ have no teeth. It’s not hard to fathom where they’re getting their marching orders from.


    Posted by: on August 7, 2004 10:08 AM

    Another question is “Where will the key FERC personnel be in six months, assuming a Kerry victory?”

    My guess is they’ll acting as energy lobbyists or consultants, or taking sinecure positions with energy companies. They helped deliver a 40 billion dollar payoff, and they’ll be compensated.

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