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Los Angeles Power Firm Chief Lists Solutions for Crisis
Los Angeles Times, 05/27/01 Cutting Kilowatt Hours / Californians see rewards in conservation The San Francisco Chronicle, 05/27/01 W and the Coast: California dreaming Houston Chronicle, 05/27/01 Houston's top execs in energy / Oil and gas claims 8 of 10 highest- paid Houston Chronicle, 05/27/01 Enron's Indian Unit Dabhol Rejects Payment From State in Quarrel Over Bills Dow Jones Business News, 05/27/01 SAUDI ARABIA: UPDATE 3-Saudi seen revealing gas leaders before June signing. Reuters English News Service, 05/27/01 Oil Cos Told To Accept Aramco As Gas JV Partner -Report Dow Jones Energy Service, 05/27/01 India: Indian lenders of DPC to participate in Singapore meet Business Line (The Hindu), 05/27/01 Senator Calls for Hearings Into Energy Regulators' Moves The New York Times, 05/26/01 Enron's secret bid to save deregulation / PRIVATE MEETING: Chairman pitches his plan to prominent Californians The San Francisco Chronicle, 05/26/01 USA: Beverly Hills crowd unmoved by Enron pitch - paper. Reuters English News Service, 05/26/01 Enron courts prominent Californians at secret meeting Associated Press Newswires, 05/26/01 Enron's Dispute With Utility In India Grows More Tangled The New York Times, 05/26/01 India: MSEB requests MERC to rescind Dabhol PPA Business Line (The Hindu), 05/26/01 DPC refuses to take MSEB's bill for April The Economic Times, 05/26/01 Ganske Has Own War Chest To Take On Harkin for Senate Omaha World-Herald, 05/26/01 Senate confirms Texan to energy commission Houston Chronicle, 05/26/01 DUMB TALK / California AG's remarks crude and deceptive Houston Chronicle, 05/26/01 Enron sends staff on deputation Business Standard, 05/26/01 Power firm vetted Bush energy regulators The Guardian, 05/26/01 Changes in Senate could offer state relief The San Diego Union-Tribune, 05/26/01 California; Metro Desk Los Angeles Power Firm Chief Lists Solutions for Crisis KURT STREETER TIMES STAFF WRITER 05/27/2001 Los Angeles Times Home Edition B-3 Copyright 2001 / The Times Mirror Company A Texas business executive whose company has profited enormously from California's energy crisis says California needs more deregulation, not less. Kenneth Lay, the head of Houston-based Enron Corp., handed out a four-page plan detailing his solution to California's energy crisis at a meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and other state business and political leaders at a Beverly Hills hotel May 17. The report details several ways to solve California's energy crisis. "Get deregulation right in California," it reads. "California never deregulated. . . . There is more regulation than ever." Among the document's other points are calls for consumers to pay the billions of dollars in debt the state's public utilities have incurred, and an assertion that federal investigations into price gouging by private firms such as Enron are contributing to the problems. Lay also suggests increasing conservation efforts, partly through pricing that would cost consumers more for using electricity during peak times. Reached for comment, Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis, called the paper a "generator's wish list," saying it goes against the governor's policy on the energy crisis. "The governor is not calling off the dogs," Maviglio said Saturday. "To suggest that ratepayers should shoulder the entire burden of deregulation is totally the opposite of what the governor is calling for." Lay, one of President Bush's biggest campaign contributors and a key advisor on the Bush energy plan, has built a powerful energy company by buying electricity from generators and then selling it. Enron reported first-quarter revenue of $50.1 billion, nearly a 281% increase over the same quarter last year. Lay met with Riordan and luminaries including actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and financier Michael Milken--plus about a dozen others--at the Peninsula Hotel. Enron spokesman Mark Palmer said: "Our position is simple." California needs to "increase the supply of energy and decrease the demand." * Associated Press contributed to this story. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. NEWS Cutting Kilowatt Hours / Californians see rewards in conservation Joe Garofoli Chronicle Staff Writer 05/27/2001 The San Francisco Chronicle FINAL A.21 (Copyright 2001) For months, Californians have been engaging in acts so egregious that Beltway types fear they threaten "the American way" of life. Like conserving energy. In huge numbers. The Bush administration has been fretting about how to protect our way of life in the face of energy shortages, but many Californians will tell you they haven't sacrificed much of anything while knocking 20 percent or more off their power bill. Not unless you count having two refrigerators to be a constitutionally protected right. "People who complain about the cost of energy just aren't thinking hard enough for ways to save," said Jerri Linn Phillips. She cut 30 percent from her power bill by unplugging unused appliances in her one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's Japantown. To the amazement of the rest of the energy-guzzling country, all this personal sacrifice hasn't curled the stereotypically soft Californians into fetal positions. In fact, with electricity costs about to go up, many are ready to evangelize about their relatively pain-free conservation. "The real hardship has been the fear of the unknown," said P.J. Astrup, an Alameda resident whose most recent cross to bear was finding a gallon of curdled milk in his second refrigerator. "Sure, the lights going out for a couple of hours may have perturbed a few people (in California), but it hasn't been that bad yet." That doesn't mean conserving has been easy. It's been a hassle to change bulbs and air-dry clothes and nag the kids: "Turn off those lights. Don't you know there's an energy crisis?" Still, a Field Poll this month found that 63 percent of Californians surveyed have cut at least 10 percent of their energy usage since the start of the crisis; nearly one in four has cut 20 percent or more. The poll was taken after a study found that Californians use less electricity than their counterparts in every state but one -- Rhode Island. Not every California conservationist is as rabid as John Muir. While the more ambitious bought meter readers to measure the output of every appliance in the house, the rest just unplugged their coffeemakers and let the laundry pile up an extra week until there was a full load. A few, like Rosie Sorenson, make a game of con serving. When the Richmond resident feels like rewarding herself for a conservation job well done, she'll say, "Tonight, I'll treat myself - - I'll read with real electricity," instead of using a battery- powered lamp. Or she'll plug in two, count 'em, two bulbs in the panel above the bathroom mirror in her 1,150-square-foot condominium. "We're very privileged as a country," said the self-described "recovering psychotherapist" and budding novelist. "We have so much. But if we rally together, we should be able to get through this." Flipping circuit breakers, air-drying clothes and performing a dozen other conservation tasks has helped Sorenson drop her electricity usage 41 percent from January to March. Next up: She's going to ask the head of her condo complex to turn down the heat in one of its three pools and -- horrors! -- hot tubs. "We don't need all that," Sorenson said. Conservation chutzpah like that could be construed as compromising the American way of living in another part of the country. Middle America hears "conservation" and thinks, "Put some canned peaches in the root cellar. We got another Depression coming." A better term would be "energy efficient," said Richard Perez, editor of the 14-year-old magazine Home Power, a bible for folks living off the power grid. While "conservation" connotes "doing without" to the unconverted, everybody feels good about making their lives more "efficient." "I come from a no-sacrifice kind of place," said Perez, who hasn't turned off his microwave, VCR or any other appliance, even though his Ashland, Ore., home is powered exclusively by renewable energy sources. "And we haven't met a California home yet where we can't cut the utility costs 20 percent." Conservation is a fun game the whole family can play. Jeff Goodrich deputized his three children as "energy monitors" at the beginning of the energy crisis. Their reward for closing doors and turning off the TV surge protector: Every month, they get to keep whatever the family saved over last year's energy bill. Last month, each kid got $22. "I'd rather give the money to them than Enron or some Texas company," said Goodrich, who lives in Greenbrae. "I'm always amazed by the response people have to Californians," he said. "It seems like they're always ready to jump on us for being nuts. But conservation is about preserving our standard of living, not doing without." PHOTO; Caption: Leigh, 8, (left) Grace, 6, and Michael, 10, showed off their reward for being household energy monitors for their parents, Mary and Jeff Goodrich (background). / John O'Hara/The Chronicle Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. OUTLOOK Opinion W and the Coast: California dreaming CRAGG HINES Staff 05/27/2001 Houston Chronicle 2 STAR 2 (Copyright 2001) LOS ANGELES - Welcome to California, Mr. President. You're a brave man. They've been saying terrible things about you out here. Some of them are even true. When you arrive Monday for your first visit to the Golden State since the election, try to blend in. Take it from me, you'd look fabulous in Birkenstocks. Don't call it "La-La-Land." But do say, "dude," a lot. (See below.) Remember these people didn't like you that much before the lights began to flicker. Key figures: Gore 54, Bush 41. And after all that work and money and those nasty, hot visits last year to the raisin sheds in Fresno. So, don't take the smiles of the official welcoming party too seriously. They wouldn't make a very good focus group. When I told John Burton, Democratic leader of the state Senate, you were finally coming to California he said: "It'll be like Stevenson going to Dallas." Not exactly, but you get the idea. You can do self-deprecation, and it would not be amiss. Self- deprecation, hell. What about self-mortification? You might even want to borrow Jerry Brown's little flagellation thingy from his seminary days. Did you bring a flashlight? It would help if you can tone down the West Texas twang. Intimate that you're an orphan, and certainly don't admit that your parents live in Houston or that you've ever been to such a wantonly rapacious place. Why, "unconscionable price-gouging" occurs there, according to Gov. Gray Davis. Talk about your brother in Florida and how, just like Californians, he doesn't want any more drilling off his coastline. (You can skip the part about how you don't exactly agree - with him or them.) Talk about your sister in the Washington, D.C.-area. Remind them that her husband worked for such California Democrats as Tony Coelho (do not recall that Coelho got out of Congress just ahead of the ethics committee) and that your brother-in-law is a lobbyist for the California wine industry. Good names to drop: Ernest and Julio. You might try telling folks you're from Connecticut. You were born there, and you went back to Yale as commencement speaker just last Monday. And for heaven's sake don't tell them you know Enron Chairman Ken Lay or that he and corporate colleagues are among the biggest Republican bankrollers. A few days ago, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he'd like to find a way to lodge criminal charges against some Big Energy boys. "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8 x 10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, `Hi, my name is Spike, honey,' " Lockyer told one crowd, according to an aide. Just for emphasis, the attorney general repeated it for the Wall Street Journal. I guess Lockyer just forgot to mention that as a state senator in 1996 he voted for the electricity deregulation bill at the heart of the problem. See, I told you how useful "dude" could be. And, as Lockyer also proves, cheap political theatrics are pretty hot too. Before you meet with Gov. Davis, make sure to read the latest statewide poll from the Public Policy Institute of California. Maybe have it lying around the room when Davis walks in. He's familiar with the numbers and will catch your drift. Fewer than half of Californians now approve of the way he's handling his job - a big drop from January. Sixty percent disapprove of the way he's handling the electricity crisis. The best news is that the public doesn't really blame either of you - yet - for the crisis. A third of folks in the poll blame the energy companies. Almost as many blame former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson who pushed the deregulation measure and the Democratic- dominated Legislature that enacted it. Only 10 percent blame Davis and the current Legislature and only 8 percent blame you and the federal government - the same number, by the way, who blame California consumers. But that doesn't mean you're off the hook. Fifty-six percent of the folks don't like the way you're responding to the crisis. If you don't have an order for capping electricity prices in your briefcase, you might consider having Air Force One fly on to Hawaii. Like folks across the country, Californians give you decent marks overall, with 57 percent in the PPIC poll approving of your job performance and 36 percent disapproving. Seven percent must have been at the beach. Two other things: Get out of here before the air-conditioning season really cranks up, and, remember, they call it "sushi," not "bait." Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS Houston's top execs in energy / Oil and gas claims 8 of 10 highest- paid L.M. SIXEL Staff 05/27/2001 Houston Chronicle 2 STAR 1 (Copyright 2001) Want to know just how well the energy business is doing? Consider this: Eight out of the 10 highest-paid executives in Houston are in the oil and gas business. The annual list, compiled by Resource Connection for the Houston Chronicle, is dominated by executives from Enron Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Nabors Industries. The executives were handsomely rewarded in stock options and awards of stock at a time when their company stock prices are riding high. The top earner was the chairman and CEO of Nabors Industries, Eugene M. Isenberg. He earned $63.9 million last year, largely because the company doubled the number of options it awarded him the previous year, said Tammy Hemphill, director of human capital consulting for Resource Connection. When times are good, companies typically give away more options. It's a way to attract and retain senior management. Isenberg's compensation comes strictly through the performance of the company, said Denny Smith, director of corporate development for Nabors Industries. The only way Isenberg can make money is if the value of the company's stock grows through his efforts. And he's made a lot for Nabors Industries. When Isenberg took over the company in 1986, its net worth was a negative $35 million and it was emerging from bankruptcy. Under Isenberg's leadership, the company's net worth is now $2 billion, said Smith. And Nabors' stock price doubled during 2000. Isenberg earned 42 percent more than the highest-paid executive of the year before. Robert Devlin, American General's chairman and chief executive officer, earned $45 million in 1999. Devlin fell to the 10th place on the recent list (he earned $27,272,697 in 2000). But according to a source familiar with American General's compensation packages, Devlin will receive about $200 million in stock options and other incentives in 2001 as a result of American International Group's purchase of American General. Four of the six highest-paid executives in Houston are from Enron. But the highest-paid Enron executive is not Chairman Ken Lay. In fact, Lay made less money than three of his lieutenants because he received far fewer stock options. For example, Kenneth Rice, chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Broadband Services, one of Enron's business units, received more than twice as many options as Lay and Jeff Skilling, Enron's chief executive officer and president. Consequently, Rice was the second-highest-paid executive in Houston, taking home $47,375,588 in 2000. Lay, who was the sixth- highest-paid executive, earned $35,665,037. Max Watson, the former chairman and chief executive officer of BMC Software, was conspicuously absent from the list this year. He didn't get any stock options or restricted stock awards in 2000, so his compensation was just salary and bonus of $1.2 million, Hemphill said. But that wasn't enough to put him on the list, which required a package worth at least $2 million. John Cox, acting chief financial officer of BMC Software, said the company awards options only once every three years. It's a good- sized grant that's supposed to last three years. The options take four years to vest so they always have options "on the table" - options that haven't vested yet but have a high value that makes it difficult for an executive to leave the company. Of the 17 highest-paid executives in Houston, five are from Anadarko. "They're very good at what they do," said Teresa Wong, manager of public affairs and corporate communications for Anadarko. The company went from a $4 billion company in January 2000 to a $16 billion company by the end of the year, she said. It catapulted into the top in terms of production, employees and reserves, she said. The executives are being rewarded for that increased risk and responsibility, she said. And it didn't hurt that the stock price more than doubled during the year. Dynegy's executives also benefited from the company's rapid growth. Two of the merchant energy company executives were among the 14 highest-paid executives in Houston. "We had an incredible year last year," said Jennifer Rosser, director of strategic business communications. The stock price increased 231 percent, the number of employees more than doubled, and the company had a 210 percent increase in net income. Chuck Watson, chairman and CEO, and Steve Bergstrom, the company's president, are among the founders of the company, she said. Incentive plans based on options and awards of stock work well when the stock market is riding high. They aren't as effective when the stock prices are "underwater" - Wall Street lingo for worthless. So, to re-motivate executives in a depressed stock market, nonenergy companies have been focusing on short-term incentives such as cash bonuses, said Wes Hart, an executive compensation consultant who designs executive incentive plans for Buck Consultants. Companies hope the cash incentives will boost their numbers - earnings per share and cash flow - and hopefully the stock price will follow, Hart said. That new focus on short-term thinking doesn't mean companies stopped pondering longer-term goals. But some are adding more "teeth" to their long-term performance goals to get away from the idea that options are a "gimme" or given based on seniority. And to keep the long-term goals from becoming worthless when the stock price falls, companies are using goals that aren't as directly tied to the stock price. Sometimes executives must meet a profit hurdle. Others must outperform a designated peer group on several key performance categories, Hart said. Other times, executives are required to meet an imposed stock market hurdle; for example, the stock has to reach $50 and stay there for 10 days. And some companies are giving executives a reward if the company's stock price drops less than its competitors, Hart said. Photos: 1. Because of differences in stock option packages, Enron Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling made less than Kenneth Rice, chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Broadband Services, one of Enron's business units (p. 2); 2. Because of differences in stock option packages, Enron Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling made less than Kenneth Rice, chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Broadband Services, one of Enron's business units (p. 2); Mug: 3. Eugene M. Isenberg (p. 2); Graph: 4. Company financials (p. 2) Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Enron's Indian Unit Dabhol Rejects Payment From State in Quarrel Over Bills By Jesse Pesta 05/27/2001 Dow Jones Business News (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) Staff Reporter at The Asian Wall Street Journal NEW DELHI -- In an unusual twist in a quarrel over unpaid bills, Enron Corp.'s Indian power project, Dabhol Power Corp., has rejected a check valued at $39 million from its only customer, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. Dabhol also delivered a sharply worded four-page letter responding to the electricity board's decision last week to rescind its contract based on a claim that Dabhol misrepresented its "ramp-up rate" - the time it takes to go from launch to full power. "We deny that DPC have practiced any misrepresentation," the letter says. "Furthermore, we do not think that the MSEB entertains any honest belief" in its own allegation, the letter says. It is the latest in a series of counterpunches as both sides try to gain the edge in a fight over the rates Dabhol charges for electricity. The $3 billion power plant is the largest foreign investment in India, and the dispute is being closely watched as an indicator of India's hospitality toward investors from abroad. India is in dire need of electricity: New Delhi endures hours-long blackouts every day. However, many of India's state electricity boards have little cash because of widespread electricity theft and lax customer metering. The Dabhol dispute broke late last year, when the Maharashtra board defaulted on bills totaling $48 million. Dabhol's critics claim the rates it charges are unreasonably high. Dabhol rejects that argument. Among other things, Dabhol has pointed out that the Maharashtra board draws only about 15% of the plant's capacity, down from an average of 60% or so before the dispute. Reduced use pushes up the per-unit cost because the pricing formula includes some capital costs. A 90% utilization rate would result in a tariff of 4.5 to five rupees (nine cents to 11 cents) per kilowatt-hour, one official estimated. In contrast, the chairman of the Maharashtra electricity board, Vinay Bansal, said on Sunday that current tariffs may be in the range of seven to 10 rupees, which he acknowledged is partly due to reduced utilization of capacity. Mr. Bansal said he hadn't seen the Dabhol letter and couldn't comment on it specifically. He also said that after Dabhol rejected the April payment, the Maharashtra board deposited the payment to a Dabhol account. But, he added, "If they want to return it, they can still return it." In the letter, Dabhol says it rejected the check for 1.37 billion rupees because it was accompanied by a note saying the payment was made under protest, a reference to the Maharashtra board's decision last week to rescind its electricity contract with Dabhol. "The MSEB cannot have it both ways," says the letter, signed by Enron executive K. Wade Cline. Either the board is rescinding the contract, or it is affirming the validity of the contract by making payments. Regarding the Maharashtra board's claim that Dabhol misrepresented the plant's ramp-up rate, the letter says the contract permits "unilateral amendment" of the production schedule based on actual plant performance. Mr. Bansal said the board disagrees with Dabhol's interpretation of the contract. This isn't the first time Dabhol has come under fire. In Maharashtra state elections in 1995, a coalition government came to power partly on the strength of a campaign against the plant. Political leaders said the plan was too costly and too dependent on foreign fuel. The newly elected state government canceled the project, although the contract was later renegotiated and construction was finished in May 1999. With the payment defaults, trouble had returned. In recent months, Dabhol has invoked political force majeure - a move typically used to dissolve a contract because of war or natural disaster - saying recent government actions could harm the company's ability to meet its obligations. It also has called on existing federal-government guarantees to cover the overdue bills. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra electricity board has slapped fines totaling four billion rupees ($85 million) on Dabhol for amending the start-up schedule, and a state panel has recommended sweeping changes in the contract. But the past week or so has been particularly stormy and Dabhol itself indicated a willingness to scrap the contract. A week ago, Dabhol issued a preliminary termination notice, a formal step that would allow it to cancel the contract six months from now if the disputes aren't resolved. And on Wednesday, the Maharashtra board said it was rescinding the contract. Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAUDI ARABIA: UPDATE 3-Saudi seen revealing gas leaders before June signing. By Peg Mackey 05/27/2001 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2001. DUBAI, May 27 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is expected to reveal the leaders of two coveted gas projects before putting pen to paper on multi-billion dollar agreements with leading foreign oil companies on June 3, industry sources said on Sunday. On May 18 the kingdom awarded eight major oil companies stakes in a gas development initiative, its biggest opening to foreign investors in a quarter of a century. ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch/Shell have won starring roles in the so-called "core venture" projects, estimated to require combined total investments of $25 billion. And industry sources have suggested that Exxon is in pole position to lead the $15 billion South Ghawar development, known as core venture 1, with Shell a strong contender to lead core venture three - development of gas at Shaybah in the empty quarter of southeast Saudi Arabia. Both supermajors already have considerable investment in the kingdom's refining and petrochemical sectors and feature as top customers of Saudi oil. BP is also competing for the top slot in South Ghawar, sources said. Exxon, Shell, BP and Phillips have all been granted stakes in South Ghawar, viewed by many as the prize gem of the gas initiative - unveiled more than two years ago. The leader of core venture 1 is due to get a 35 percent stake, two companies are to get 25 percent each and one firm 15 percent, sources in the region said. Shell, TotalFinaElf and Conoco have all been awarded stakes in the Shaybah venture, where the leading company is due to receive a 40 percent stake, with the remaining firms getting 30 percent each, according to industry sources. Exxon already has secured the leading role with 70 percent in core venture two on the Red Sea coast while Occidental and Enron between them hold 30 percent. READING THE FINE PRINT By the signing ceremony in Jeddah, the oil companies will have had more than two weeks to pore over "preparatory agreements" which detail some guidelines for the three core ventures and outline the percentage stakes of each consortium, industry sources said. Fiscal and regulatory frameworks are to be worked out during the second half of the year, they added. Companies are expecting tough negotiations in order to finalise contracts by a year-end target. "This is just the start of things," an industry executive said. "There are going to be about five months of intense talks." Top oil firms insist there are profits to be made in the kingdom, holder of the world's fourth-biggest gas reserves. "The Saudis have been saying all along that these are world-class projects with world-class returns," an analyst said. "The oil majors are not doubting that." And they have wound up with bigger exploration blocks than they first envisaged. "They all asked for more exploration and they got it," an industry executive said. The scope of South Ghawar core venture 1 includes gas exploration in the North Rub al Khali, a natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery plant, gas processing, participation in expansion of the gas pipeline network, construction of two power and water desalination plants and two petrochemical plants. Investment of up to $5 billion in the Red Sea core venture 2 includes an exploration area in the northern Red Sea, development of the existing Midyan and Barqan gas fields and requirements for power, desalination and petrochemical plants. Investment of some $5 billion in the Shaybah core venture 3, Shaybah includes gas exploration in South Rub al Khali, development of the Kidan gas field and power, desalination and petrochemical plants. Analysts expect state oil company Saudi Aramco to participate in the gas initiative. "It is unwise to think that Saudi Aramco will not be involved," a regional analyst said. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Oil Cos Told To Accept Aramco As Gas JV Partner -Report 05/27/2001 Dow Jones Energy Service (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) MANAMA, Bahrain -(Dow Jones)- The Saudi government has told international oil companies they must accept the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (C.SOI), or Aramco, as a partner in any core gas project it offers them if Aramco wants the partnership, the Saudi business daily al-Eqtisadiah reported Sunday. It quoted sources as saying that Aramco will also have a majority voting rights on key issues regardless of its equity size in the projects. The newspaper didn't elaborate on whether this kind of arrangement would be accepted by the foreign companies. Aramco would also receive compensation for any existing assets, property or infrastructure used by the planned joint ventures, which shouldn't conflict with any of Aramco's current projects, the newspaper said. The Saudi government is expected to sign preliminary agreements for multibillion dollar natural gas development projects with prequalified oil companies June 3, a Saudi government source said Sunday. The government earlier this month selected a consortium comprising Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), BP PLC (BP) and Phillips Petroleum Co. (P), for a project to develop the South Ghawar field, called Core Venture 1, with an estimated investment value of between $15 billion and $17 billion. Exxon Mobil was also appointed to lead Core Venture 2, or the Red Sea project, with Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) and Enron Corp. (ENE), which bid jointly for the project, as partners. Core Venture 3, the Shaybah project, was awarded to a consortium of Shell, TotalFinaElf (TOT) and Conoco Inc. (COCA). Leaders for Core Ventures 1 and 3 have yet to be confirmed. -By Abdulla Fardan, Dow Jones Newswires; (973) 530758; abdullah.fardan@dowjones.com Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. India: Indian lenders of DPC to participate in Singapore meet 05/27/2001 Business Line (The Hindu) Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire MUMBAI, May 26. INDIAN lenders to Dabhol Power Company have decided to take part at the meeting in Singapore called by foreign financiers of the project. Institutional sources told Business Line that even though the exact agenda of the meeting has not been finalised as yet, domestic lenders would participate in the meeting to be held on June 5 and 6. They were earlier contemplating skipping the meeting as they thought it would serve no good because DPC had anyway begun termination proceedings. Also, with chances of foreign lenders cashing the deferred payment guarantees increasing, Indian lenders are keen to find out what is on their minds. As of now, they have not received any indication from their counterparts abroad. The source said the meeting is expected to discuss whether they should continue disbursements to the project in spite of the company serving the preliminary termination notice and MSEB retaliating with a legal notice. The board yesterday approached the Electricity regulatory commission for resolving the dispute for which a hearing is scheduled on May 29. Indian financiers still favour continuing with the project as it is close to completion. Another issue likely to crop up is funding the cost overruns. The delays caused by various reasons has apparently resulted in cost overruns reportedly of about $400 million. The company has already brought in all the equity and now, if it has to continue with construction, it has to borrow more, which the lenders are not very keen on. Meanwhile, the sources said Enron is trying to work out ways of bringing down the tariff. They said Enron is likely to have another meeting with officials of Union Power and Finance Ministries. - Our Bureau Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. National Desk; Section A Senator Calls for Hearings Into Energy Regulators' Moves By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS 05/26/2001 The New York Times Page 11, Column 1 c. 2001 New York Times Company WASHINGTON, May 25 -- Accusing federal regulators of not doing their job, Senator Dianne Feinstein called today for hearings into possible improprieties between members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and private energy interests. Ms. Feinstein, a California Democrat, said the commission, which is responsible for regulating the energy industry and is known by the acronym FERC, had not acted to protect residents of her state from companies that were reaping undue profits through spiraling energy costs. ''Despite evidence of manipulation and price gouging in both the electricity and natural gas markets in California and the West, and a finding by FERC last November of 'unjust and unreasonable' rates,'' the senator said, ''the commission has failed to take the actions necessary to bring reliability and stability to the marketplace.'' Ms. Feinstein made the request in a letter to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who is poised to take over the Committee on Governmental Affairs once the Democrats regain control of the Senate. Mr. Lieberman, who has already asked the General Accounting Office to investigate price gouging, could not be reached for comment today. In her letter, Ms. Feinstein cited an article in The New York Times today reporting that Kenneth L. Lay, chairman of the Enron Corporation, had told the commission's chairman, Curtis Hebert Jr., that he would support his continuation in the job if the commissioner endorsed the company's views on energy deregulation. Enron is the nation's largest electricity trader. Mr. Hebert said he had rejected Mr. Lay's offer. Mr. Lay told The Times that it was Mr. Hebert who had asked him to intercede with White House officials. The president appoints members of the commission and names its chairman. ''It would be unconscionable if any of the nation's electricity traders or generators were in a position to be able to determine who chairs or becomes a member of the commission,'' Ms. Feinstein said. Environmental groups and other critics say the Bush administration has granted unprecedented access to leaders of the energy industry. They note that both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made their fortunes in oil and that the president's national energy strategy, unveiled last week, relied heavily on exploiting new resources rather than conservation or fuel efficiency. But in a recent interview, Mr. Cheney said the White House was motivated by ''sound public policy'' and not what the energy companies sought. The Senate today confirmed Mr. Bush's nominees for two Republican vacancies on the five-member panel. They are Patrick Wood, a former head of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, which deregulated electricity in the president's home state, and Nora Brownwell, a Pennsylvania utility regulator. Mr. Cheney has indicated that Mr. Wood will take over as chairman. Photo: Senator Dianne Feinstein (Associated Press) Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. NEWS Enron's secret bid to save deregulation / PRIVATE MEETING: Chairman pitches his plan to prominent Californians Christian Berthelsen, Scott Winokur Chronicle Staff Writers 05/26/2001 The San Francisco Chronicle FINAL A.1 (Copyright 2001) Energy executive Kenneth Lay, head of powerful Enron Corp., quietly courted Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Riordan, Michael Milken and other luminaries this week in Beverly Hills to drum up support for his solution to California's energy crisis. His prescription called for more rate increases, an end to state and federal investigations and less rather than more regulation. Lay, a close friend of President Bush and one of his largest campaign contributors, hosted a private 90-minute meeting in a conference room at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills on Thursday. Among the participants were Milken, the former head of the Drexel Burnham Lambert investment banking firm who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 1990 and who now runs a think tank based in Santa Monica; movie star Schwarzenegger; and Riordan, the mayor of Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger and Riordan have been courted recently as GOP gubernatorial candidates. One participant, who agreed to speak on the condition he not be identified, said the meeting appeared to be geared toward getting participants to support Lay's vision and then champion it to officials who are trying to solve the state's energy mess. PLAN TO RESCUE DEREGULATION The source said the timing and tone of the meeting suggested Lay is concerned that California will abandon its disastrous experiment with power markets by either re-regulating the system or creating a government authority to provide electricity. Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation last week to create and fund a state power authority that would build, buy and run power plants in California. "They're trying to rescue deregulation," the source said of Enron executives. "They think the whole state power authority is a bad idea." At the meeting, Enron representatives circulated a four-page position paper titled "Comprehensive Solution for California," which was obtained by The Chronicle. It said ratepayers should bear responsibility for the billions in debt incurred by the state's public utilities and that investigations of power price manipulation and political rhetoric are making matters worse. The paper made no mention of the possibility that much of the runaway electricity costs in California is due to market manipulation by power generators and traders -- a possibility given credibility in studies by regulators and economists. One of the talking points read: "Get deregulation right this time - - California needs a real electricity market, not government takeovers." Another point suggested giving consumers monetary rebates for conserving electricity. INVOLVED IN EARLY DAYS Lay has been an aggressive champion of deregulated electricity markets and was an early advocate in persuading California to begin its experiment with a competitive power market system. Lay has created a new kind of company in the process, one that essentially produces nothing but makes money as a middle-man, buying electricity from generators and selling it to consumers. During the first quarter of this year, Enron's revenues increased 281 percent to $50.1 billion. Asked about the purpose of the meeting, Karen Denne, a spokeswoman for Enron, said she would "look into that" and then did not return repeated telephone calls seeking comment. One participant said Denne was present at the meeting. D.C. CONNECTIONS Meanwhile, Lay's power in Washington is reported to have reached unprecedented heights. According to a story in yesterday's New York Times, Lay supplied the Bush administration with a list of candidates for jobs regulating the power industry and even interviewed one of them. The story also said Lay essentially threatened to seek the removal of the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Curt Hebert, if he does not support Lay's desire to further deregulate the nation's electricity system. Lay denied the allegation. Also in attendance at this week's meeting were Bruce Karatz, chief executive of home builder Kaufman & Broad; Ray Irani, chief executive of Occidental Petroleum; and Kevin Sharer, chief executive of biotech giant Amgen. Among those who were invited but did not attend were former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin "Magic" Johnson; supermarket magnate and Bill Clinton supporter Ron Burkle; and Dennis Tito, recently returned from the world's first civilian space trip. Milken, through a spokesman, confirmed that he attended the meeting, but declined to be interviewed. Schwarzenegger could not be reached for comment through a publicist, and Sharer did not return a call yesterday afternoon. A spokesman for Riordan, Peter Hidalgo, said the Los Angeles mayor attended, but was "not intending to formulate any kind of policy position on this issue. His intent is to listen to all sides." Attached to the Enron handout was a two-page open letter, addressed to Davis and the state Legislature, apparently prepared for those who support Lay's position and would be willing to sign their names to it. The source who participated in the meeting said those assembled appeared noncommittal and asked a number of questions of Lay, but did not agree to champion his agenda. PHOTO; Caption: Kenneth Lay Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. USA: Beverly Hills crowd unmoved by Enron pitch - paper. 05/26/2001 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2001. SAN FRANCISCO, May 26 (Reuters) - Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth Lay sought the backing of prominent Californians for an energy deregulation plan this week but had little success, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Saturday. The newspaper, citing an anonymous source present at the 90-minute meeting Thursday at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, said that among those present were Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former junk-bond kind Michael Milken. The newspaper said Enron failed to obtain signatures from anyone at the meeting for an open letter to Gov. Gray Davis and the state legislature which was attached to a four-page position paper championing power market deregulation. The Chronicle quoted its source as saying Lay's guests were inquisitive but noncommittal. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Enron courts prominent Californians at secret meeting 05/26/2001 Associated Press Newswires Copyright 2001. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In a move to garner support from prominent California Republicans, a Texas energy executive held a secret meeting to push for the preservation of the state's deregulated power market, a newspaper reported Saturday. Houston-based Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay met with such names as movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 1990 as head of the Drexel Burnham Lambert investment banking firm, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The 90-minute private meeting took place Thursday in a Beverly Hills hotel. Schwarzenegger and Riordan have been courted as Republican candidates for governor. Enron distributed a four-page plan at the meeting calling for ratepayers to pay the billions in debt racked up by the state's public utilities and contending that state and federal investigations of price gouging are hindering the situation, the Chronicle reported after obtaining a copy of the paper. Others attending the meeting included chief executives Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum, Kevin Sharer of biotech giant Amgen, and Bruce Karatz of home builder Kaufman & Broad, the Chronicle reported, citing unidentified sources. Lay, who is a friend and one of President Bush's largest campaign contributors, has built the world's largest energy trader by buying electricity from generators and selling it to consumers. During the first quarter of this year, Enron's revenues increased 281 percent to $50.1 billion. Lay and Gov. Gray Davis have disagreed about how California's power crisis should be handled, and Lay says his company is being used as a scapegoat. Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne did not immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday. ---- On the Net: http://www.enron.com/corp/ Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Business/Financial Desk; Section C INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Enron's Dispute With Utility In India Grows More Tangled By SARITHA RAI 05/26/2001 The New York Times Page 2, Column 5 c. 2001 New York Times Company BANGALORE, India, May 25 -- The dispute between the Enron Corporation and Indian federal and state government officials keeps getting messier. Talks meant to settle the dispute over months of unpaid power bills fell apart before they could begin on Wednesday, when the chief negotiator on the government side, Madhav Godbole, abruptly resigned after being criticized by a senior politician for going into the negotiations with a ''negative mind-set.'' Pressure from the chief minister of Maharashtra state persuaded him to retract the resignation later in the day. Then, on Thursday, the state-run utility at the center of the dispute -- the sole customer for electricity generated by the Enron-controlled Dabhol Power Company -- served notice that it would challenge the validity of the contract between Dabhol and the utility and seek to have it canceled. The utility has long complained that Dabhol's rates are too high, and it has tried to assess penalties on Dabhol for failing to achieve promised levels of power capacity. Another government committee member, R. K. Pachauri, the director of an energy research institute, also resigned, and told reporters that the committee had been asked to rewrite the power supply contract, which it had no authority to do. The move by the utility came nearly a week after Dabhol escalated the dispute to a new level by serving its own termination notice on the utility for nonpayment. Under the contract's terms, Dabhol's notice set the clock ticking on a six-month cooling-off period in which the two sides might settle the dispute before the contract is ended. The Indian federal government, which is represented on the negotiating committee along with the utility and the state government, has been pressing for a quick resolution. ''The government is ready to consider any worthwhile idea emerging out of the renegotiating committee for the settlement of the dispute,'' the energy minister, Suresh Prabhu, said on Thursday. Where the talks are headed is hard to tell, but both sides have much to lose from an irreparable rupture. The success of the $2.9 billion Dabhol project, 65 percent owned by Enron, is seen as crucial to the development of India's investment-starved power industry, and to India's hopes of attracting $10 billion in foreign investment in the coming year. Both the federal and state governments have guaranteed the utility's payments of its bills, as well as some of the loans to build the project. For Enron's part, Dabhol has not brought in any revenue for months, and a drawn-out legal battle in the Indian courts could leave it unable to recover any of its losses if unsuccessful. Talks are now scheduled to begin Tuesday. Photo: Part of a power plant that a subsidiary of the United States energy company Enron has been building in Dabhol, India. A dispute with Indian officials over unpaid bills has clouded the future of the plant. (Associated Press) Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. India: MSEB requests MERC to rescind Dabhol PPA 05/26/2001 Business Line (The Hindu) Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire MUMBAI, May 25. THE Maharashtra State Electricity Board filed a petition with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission on Friday, asking it to rescind the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Dabhol Power Company. The move is expected to shift arbitration proceedings between the two companies to an Indian forum. "MERC will now give us instructions whether parallel action should continue. We are praying to the commission that arbitration proceedings be discontinued," a senior MSEB official said. "Although, the PPA was signed much before MERC's formation, the dispute arose only over the past few months. And as such, we are seeking a hearing on these disputes," the official said. The Advocate General of Maharashtra, Mr Goolam E. Vahanvati, is expected to represent MSEB at the commission hearing. On Thursday, MSEB had issued a legal notice to Enron, stating that it had been forced to rescind the PPA and was avoiding the contract as DPC had "misrepresented material facts" while drawing up the PPA and hence, the board was "no more bound by the contract". According to the official, the PPA provides for full capacity availability within three hours of "cold start", for which MSEB has to pay a penalty of Rs 17 lakh. MSEB had alleged that DPC's machines take five hours to reach full capacity and had slapped a rebate of Rs 401 crore in January 2001. "Following this, DPC not only said the performance curves in the PPA be replaced but that the plant profile did not fit the PPA to begin with. Also, a series of notices - arbitration, escrow, political force majeure and finally the preliminary termination notice - were slapped on the board," the official said. The board has now asked MERC to look into all disputes between the two companies. If DPC does not attend the hearing, the commission can give an 'ex-parte hearing', according to legal sources. According to Section 52 of the ERC Act, provisions of this Act have an overriding effect on all other Acts. The board will also seek damages to the tune of about Rs 700 crore, which includes the January rebate of Rs 401 crore and the subsequent two rebates amounting to Rs 300 crore, the official said. Meanwhile, negotiations between the two parties are expected to continue. "The Godbole committee meeting is scheduled on May 29. We would like to reach an understanding with DPC," the official said. The board has offered to continue buying power from DPC in spite of the notice to avoid inconvenience to the power company. Bill not accepted: Meanwhile, DPC refused to accept Rs 139 crore toward its April power purchase bill paid by MSEB under protest on Friday. The DPC spokesperson refused to comment on the company's decision. "We had sent them the bill amount but they did not accept it," a senior MSEB official said. The board now plans to deposit the money in DPC's bank account and send a separate protest letter to the company, as per PPA provisions. - Our Bureau Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. DPC refuses to take MSEB's bill for April Our Bureau 05/26/2001 The Economic Times Copyright (C) 2001 The Economic Times; Source: World Reporter (TM) DABHOL Power Company on Friday refused to accept the Rs 136.87-crore April electricity bill payment from Maharashtra State Electricity Board. "We sent the cheque to DPC, but they refused to accept it. We are yet to get any reply from them," said N M Mishra, director (finance) of MSEB. He said the money was parked in a Canara Bank account. According to a senior MSEB official, the DPC move is in response to MSEB's notice to rescind the power purchase agreement issued on Thursday. "It seems that since MSEB is paying the cheque under protest, DPC is now looking at various legal implications," he said. The DPC spokesperson was not available for comments. Meanwhile, DPC on Friday held discussions with the power ministry officials in New Delhi. Enron managing director K Wade Cline met power secretary A K Basu and discussed the situation arising out of DPC serving a preliminary termination notice because of an unresolved six-month dispute over bills owed by MSEB. Basu said, "The Centre will do whatever possible to resolve the DPC-MSEB dispute at the earliest." The ministry has advised DPC to appear before Maharashtra government's negotiating committee headed by Madhav Godbole to plead their case. According to Basu, the Centre has appointed former telecom secretary A V Gokak on the committee for an early solution. "Gokak has been fully briefed and he would try to bring both sides on a common ground. But both the parties have to come to an understanding between themselves," he added. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. News Ganske Has Own War Chest To Take On Harkin for Senate MATT KELLEY WORLD-HERALD BUREAU 05/26/2001 Omaha World-Herald Sunrise 8 (Copyright 2001 Omaha World-Herald Company) Should it come down to personal wealth, Rep. Greg Ganske will have an edge in a 2002 Iowa Senate race with Sen. Tom Harkin. Ganske, a Republican who plans to challenge Harkin, held assets worth between $2.48 million and $5.63 million at the end of 2000, according to financial disclosure statements. Harkin, a Democrat, reported wealth between $363,000 and $1.43 million. Those figures, however, may prove irrelevant as both candidates have proved their ability to finance expensive campaigns without dipping into their personal fortunes. Not since Ganske's first run for office, in 1994, has either man spent his own money to get elected. "We're both pretty good fund-raisers," Ganske said Wednesday. The financial figures are reported each year on disclosure statements filed by every member of Congress. For the lawmakers from western Iowa, the most recent disclosure reports showed relatively little change from 1999. The maximum value of Republican Sen. Charles Grassley's assets dwindled a bit, from $5 million in 1999 to just under $3.4 million last year. Grassley, who farms in Butler County, keeps virtually all of his wealth in farmland and mutual funds. While the maximum value of Grassley's assets dwindled, the minimum value rose from $1 million in 1999 to $1.13 million last year. Grassley also reported loans for his farmland of between $115,000 and $300,000. His farms brought in $81,700 in income 2000 with just over $60,000 in expenses, according to the report. Republican Rep. Tom Latham, who is part owner of a family farm and seed company, reported assets of between $1.5 million and $3.23 million in 2000. That's up from 1999, when Latham reported assets between $1.1 million and $2.6 million. Latham's disclosure report also shows a significant jump in investment income, from between $108,400 to just over $1 million. In 1999, Latham reported income of between $60,000 to $145,000. Most of that increase is due to income from his share of the family seed company, which in 2000 crept into reporting bracket with a $1 million ceiling. Latham's income from the company, however, is likely much closer to bracket's lower threshold of $100,000 - a level he did not exceed in 1999. Latham also reported a salary from Latham Seed Co. of $6,000. He reported a loan in Grand Junction, Iowa, for $15,000 to $50,000. As in 1999, Rep. Leonard Boswell's main source of investment income came from the sale of between $15,000 and $50,000 in calves from his farm in Decatur County. The Democrat's total wealth in 2000 stood between $402,000 and $880,000 - all of it tied to his farmland. He reported between $30,000 and $100,000 in farm loans. Aside from his congressional salary, Boswell earned just over $8,000 in pension payments from his service in the Iowa Legislature. His wife, Dody, earned just under $7,000 from Lamoni Community Schools. Ganske also held about the same level of assets and income over 1999. He reported between $112,100 and $273,000 in income, most it from stock dividends, interest and capital gains. Ganske's wife, Corrine, also works as a physician. They reported no liabilities. The majority of Ganske's wealth was in mutual funds. Should Ganske win the GOP primary to face Harkin, the race is likely to become pivotal as both parties jockey for control of the Senate. Both candidates will draw significant donations from outside the state, perhaps from party coffers in Washington. Even so, personal wealth can provide a comforting cushion in close races. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Ganske used $618,000 of his own money to help him defeat longtime Democratic incumbent Neal Smith in 1994. Ganske will be mounting a similar challenge in 2002 against Harkin, a stalwart of Iowa's Democratic establishment. While smaller than Ganske's Harkin's portfolio contained a wide array of stock and bond holdings. In addition to various mutual funds, Harkin and his wife, Ruth, owned stock in Southwest Airlines, Lucent Technologies, Lehman Brothers and Kimberly Clark. And while he roundly criticizes the oil industry for reaping large profits, The Harkins own between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of common stock in Enron Corp., an energy company. Ruth Harkin owns between $25,000 and $100,000 in stock in Conoco Inc. and served on the oil company's board of directors. Her husband recently issued a statement that he has always been proud of his wife's career. Mugs/5GanskeHarkinGrassleyLathamBoswell Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS Senate confirms Texan to energy commission Houston Chronicle News Service 05/26/2001 Houston Chronicle 3 STAR 1 (Copyright 2001) WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed on Friday a Texas ally of President Bush and a Pennsylvania electricity regulator to become commissioners on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The voice-vote confirmation filled two Republican vacancies on the increasingly visible five-member commission, which has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over its actions to correct the wholesale power market chaos in California. Confirmed were Pat Wood III, head of the Texas Public Utility Commission, which is handling the deregulation of electricity in Texas, and Nora Brownell, a regulator in Pennsylvania, where deregulated power markets have been called a model. Wood's term runs through mid-2005; Brownell's will expire a year later. FERC Chairman Curtis Hebert, a Republican, will retain his post. The two Democrats on the commission, William Massey and Linda Breathitt, also remain on board. Also Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for hearings into possible improprieties between FERC members and private energy interests. In her letter, Feinstein cited a report in the New York Times on Friday that Ken Lay, the chairman of the Enron Corp., had told Hebert that he would support his continuation in the job if the commissioner endorsed the company's views on energy deregulation. Houston-based Enron is the nation's largest electricity trader. Hebert said he rejected Lay's offer. Lay told the Times that it was Hebert who asked him to intercede with White House officials. The president appoints the commission and names its chairman. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. A Editorials DUMB TALK / California AG's remarks crude and deceptive Staff 05/26/2001 Houston Chronicle 3 STAR 42 (Copyright 2001) By now many Houstonians are aware of the inappropriate and totally dumb remark California Attorney General Bill Lockyer made about Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay earlier this week. "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, `Hi, my name is Spike, honey,' " Lockyer is reported to have said in a May 22 story in The Wall Street Journal. Lockyer would like the world to blame Enron and other Texas-based energy companies for California's rolling blackouts. His crude remark is not only dumb, but also calculated to deceive, because he and other California legislators who approved the state's partial electricity deregulation (Lockyer was a member of the Legislature) can only blame themselves for California's shortages. Lockyer's personal attack on Lay was beneath anyone with even a modicum of civility. It was all the more appalling because such gutter talk by California's top law enforcement official is not helpful in resolving California's problems, particularly when Lockyer, as the Golden State's attorney general, is supposedly conducting a fair and impartial investigation into the crisis. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Enron sends staff on deputation P Vaidyanathan Iyer NEW DELHI 05/26/2001 Business Standard 1 Copyright © Business Standard Having appointed global management consultants Arthur Andersen to value its business worth in the country, Enron has now sent on deputation most of its 100-odd employees to two of its subsidiaries, Dabhol Power Company and Broadband Solutions Pvt Ltd. According to sources, with Enron Corp deciding not to undertake any fresh investments in the country, the team at Enron India had to be deployed elsewhere in its existing lines of business, DPC and BSPL. While DPC is embroiled in a controversy, BSPL has made investments to the tune of $30 million in setting up data centres in India. Sources further said that Enron India, in effect, has been reduced to a shell company merely holding stakes in Dabhol and Broadband Solutions. They also said that several employees had put in their papers since they were no longer handling tasks for which they were originally hired. When contacted, a company spokesperson said, "Those on the MetGas and fibre optic projects have been reassigned." He however refused to comment on the total number of employees deputed elsewhere. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Power firm vetted Bush energy regulators JULIAN BORGER IN WASHINGTON 05/26/2001 The Guardian Copyright (C) 2001 The Guardian; Source: World Reporter (TM) Julian Borger in Washington Applicants for jobs on the commission regulating the US energy market have been vetted by the Enron Corporation, the country's biggest electricity power company and a significant contributor to George Bush's election campaign, according to a report published yesterday. Soon after being appointed chairman of the federal energy regulatory commission, Curtis Hebert told the New York Times, he received a telephone call from the Enron president, Kenneth Lay, offering the company's backing to help him keep his job if he adapted his views on deregulation. Mr Hebert said he was offended by the approach and turned down the offer. His appointment as chairman, which was provisional pending the nomination of other members of the commission, has since been called into question by Vice-President Dick Cheney. Mr Hebert's chief of staff, Walter Ferguson, confirmed the newspaper account yesterday. '[Mr Hebert] has always been forthright and he's been a straight-shooter with folks in the industry,' he said. Mr Lay, a close friend of the Bush family, confirmed that the telephone call took place, but said it was Mr Hebert who asked for Enron's backing to keep his job. Either way, environmentalists and other critics of President Bush argue, the fact that the conversation took place at all demonstrates the leading role corporations like Enron have in making energy policy in Washington under the new administration. According to a joint investigation by the New York Times and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Mr Lay and other Enron executives interviewed other candidate members of the regulatory commission and supplied the president's personnel adviser, Clay Johnson, with a list of the company's preferred candidates. The two commissioners Mr Bush chose to fill the vacant Republican seats both had the backing of Enron and other power companies. 'It just confirms what we believed and what we've been saying, that the Bush-Cheney energy plan is written by corporations and it's in the interests of the corporations,' said Kevin Curtis, vice-president for government affairs of the National Environmental Trust, a Washington pressure group. Enron, a Dollars 100 billion behem oth in the energy trading market, was a significant backer of Mr Bush in last year's el
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