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Enron Mail |
USA: Enron reps met 6 times with Cheney or his staff. Reuters English News Service, 01/08/2002 USA: Enron gets bids for trading operations-sources. Reuters English News Service, 01/08/2002 USA: REPEAT-BP bids $25 million for Enron back office/IT assets. Reuters English News Service, 01/08/2002 BP Says Submitted $25M Bid For Enron Support Systems Dow Jones International News, 01/08/2002 Cornyn asks for committee of former Enron employees Associated Press Newswires, 01/08/2002 Cal-ISO To File Price Estimates For FERC Refund Case Dow Jones Energy Service, 01/08/2002 Democrats: Don't Gloat About Enron Time Magazine, 01/14/2002 ______________________________________________________________________ USA: Enron reps met 6 times with Cheney or his staff. 01/08/2002 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2002. WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Representatives of the collapsed energy giant Enron Corp. met six times with Vice President Dick Cheney or staff from his energy task force, the White House has told a Democratic lawmaker. In a Jan. 3 letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, vice presidential counsel David Addington said that Enron's Chairman Kenneth Lay met Cheney once during the development of the administration's energy plan. Cheney has already acknowledged this publicly. But the Addington letter also revealed five further meetings with Cheney's energy task force staff, three of which took place before the White House energy policy was announced in May and two afterwards. Enron's financial position was not discussed in any of the meetings, Addington's letter to Waxman said. Waxman, a California Democrat and ranking member of the Government Reform Committee, released the Addington letter on Tuesday. The lawmaker had written to Cheney's office seeking information on Enron's possible influence on administration policy. "Enron did not communicate information about its financial position in any of the meetings with the Vice President or with the National Energy Policy Development Group's support staff," said the Addington letter. Waxman, in a reply addressed to Cheney, noted the meetings with Cheney or his energy task force staff had stretched from last Feb. 22 to Oct. 10, just a few days before Enron announced a reduction in shareholder equity ahead of its spectacular collapse. "For the first time, the letter from Mr. Addington provides some limited details about the contacts between Enron and the energy task force," Waxman told Cheney. "It reveals that Enron had extensive access to the task force, meeting in person six times with you or the task force staff to discuss 'energy policy matters'". Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. USA: Enron gets bids for trading operations-sources. 01/08/2002 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2002. NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - At least two banks submitted bids for a controlling stake in Enron Corp.'s dormant energy trading business, likely ensuring its revival in coming weeks, people familiar with the company's plans said Tuesday. Enron, which declared bankruptcy on Dec. 2, received bids from Citicorp Inc. and UBS Warburg for the Houston-based energy trading operations. But a third financial institution that previously expressed interest, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. , declined to submit a bid by last night, the deadline for bids for the Enron assets, these people said. Citicorp, UBS Warburg and J.P. Morgan declined to comment on any interest in Enron assets. Enron officials could not be reached. The deadline brought news of a new party that may be interested in Enron's trading operations, once the world's biggest trader of contracts for natural gas and other energy commodities, British oil giant BP Plc also said it may be interested in the operations. BP said it had submitted a bid of $25 million for a small portion of Enron's assets, including some back office functions and information technology assets, but said it may be interested in other assets as well. Enron has all but shut down its Houston-based trading operations while it seeks a financial backer that could guarantee contracts. Previously, Citicorp, J.P. Morgan and UBS Warburg had expressed interest in this role, according to people familiar with the company's plans. It is unclear whether there have been other bids for the trading operations. The company is slated to decide on Thursday whether to accept a bid. Enron lawyers previously stated that the company is not looking for cash bids, but rather an ownership stake of up to 51 percent. Any bid for the trading operations must be approved by Judge Arthur Gonzalez of the Southern District of New York bankruptcy court, which is overseeing Enron's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Enron is offloading the trading operations to generate cash to pay off as much as $40 billion in debt. Enron collapsed after disclosures of hidden debt in off-balance sheet transactions destroyed investor confidence in the Houston-based company. Enron's advisors have made it a priority to revive the trading operations, which have all but stalled in the wake of the bankruptcy filing. Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. USA: REPEAT-BP bids $25 million for Enron back office/IT assets. 01/08/2002 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2002. NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Oil major BP has bid $25 million for a small portion of Enron Corp.'s assets, mainly back office functions and information technology systems, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Enron's full energy trading business is scheduled to be auctioned in a federal bankruptcy court on Jan. 10. "We're bidding for software, business processes, and license rights," the BP spokeswoman said. Once the world's leading energy trader, Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, after questions around its financial dealings led to the company's collapse. BP may be interested in bidding for other Enron assets if the current auction process breaks down, the spokeswoman added. Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. BP Says Submitted $25M Bid For Enron Support Systems By Michael Wang 01/08/2002 Dow Jones International News (Copyright © 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K. integrated oil major BP PLC (BP) said Tuesday that it has submitted a $25 million offer to buy Enron Corp.'s (ENE) computer settlement support systems used to process the trading of energy products. "The bid was made yesterday (Monday)," BP spokesman Roddy Kennedy told Dow Jones Newswires. "We are interested in the technology. It would improve our marketing capacity." BP is one of the top 10 marketers of natural gas in the U.S., selling volumes of over 12 billion cubic feet a day. The support systems are primarily used in back-office activities involving the settlement and administration of natural gas and electricity contracts. BP's bid for the technology will go into an "auction" Thursday, when Enron's advisers are expected to press bidders to improve their offers. Results are expected to be known Friday. The bidding process follows Enron's collapse last month, when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy law protection. The process allows Houston-based Enron time to reorganize its activities while keeping creditors at bay. The revelation that BP is bidding for a back-office processing system comes after the Wall Street Journal Europe reported Tuesday that it had submitted an offer for Enron's energy-trading arm, EnronOnline, considered a prominent asset in the tangled portfolio of the broke energy concern. Kennedy denied that BP has submitted a bid for EnronOnline. But he added that the oil company would be prepared to "negotiate on a non-binding basis" other unspecified Enron businesses, if the current auction process is abandoned. "If the (bidding process) doesn't work out, we would be willing to negotiate certain other parts of the business," Kennedy said. He wouldn't elaborate. -By Michael Wang, Dow Jones Newswires, +44-207842-9386; michael.wang@dowjones.com Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cornyn asks for committee of former Enron employees 01/08/2002 Associated Press Newswires Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. AUSTIN (AP) - Attorney General John Cornyn has asked a federal bankruptcy court in New York to appoint a committee of former Enron Corp. employees to voice their interests as the fallen energy giant wades through its massive Chapter 11 case. "I am very concerned by the countless stories of former employees who lost their life savings in 401(k) plans when Enron and its affiliates sought bankruptcy protection," Cornyn said in a news release Tuesday. He said the 4,500 employees laid off from the company's Houston headquarters soon after Enron filed for bankruptcy in New York on Dec. 2 "deserve a resounding voice in Enron's reorganization." More than 2,800 of those former employees have filed claims for unemployment benefits, Cornyn said. Deputy Attorney General Jeff Boyd was among several lawyers representing creditors who argued Monday that Enron's bankruptcy should be transferred to Houston. Boyd argued on behalf of several state agencies with Enron claims. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez said he would rule on the transfer requests by the end of the week. Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cal-ISO To File Price Estimates For FERC Refund Case 01/08/2002 Dow Jones Energy Service (Copyright © 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) (This article was originally published Monday) LOS ANGELES -(Dow Jones)- The California Independent System Operator will file with federal regulators by Thursday its estimate of what electricity prices would have been if current price controls had been in place between Oct. 2000-May 2001, an ISO spokesman confirmed Monday. The information will be used by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to determine if and how much generators must refund to power buyers for overcharging during that period. A Dec. 19 FERC order set a ceiling price for West Coast power during times of high demand at $108 per megawatt hour, which the ISO will use in making its calculations. The previous ceiling price, adopted in June, was $92/MWh. The upcoming ISO filing won't apply the revised prices to specific market transactions, meaning there will be no estimate of what certain generators owe, said ISO spokesman Gregg Fishman. "We are asking FERC to use this incarnation of calculations as a basis for moving forward. If we discover reasons we need to rework these numbers again, fine, but let's not wait to move forward," on hearings, Fishman said. FERC is expected to set a hearing schedule on the refund case Tuesday. California officials say generators overcharged the state $8.9 billion and were largely responsible for the state's energy crisis. Generators deny the claim. Generators involved in the FERC case include Reliant Energy Inc (REI), Calpine Corp (CPN), Mirant Corp (MIR), Dynegy Inc (DYN), the Williams Companies (WMB), Duke Energy Corp (DUK), and Enron Corp (ENE). -By Jessica Berthold, Dow Jones Newswires; 310-962-2843; jessica.berthold@dowjones.com Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Notebook/Hill Monitor Democrats: Don't Gloat About Enron Michael Weisskopf 01/14/2002 Time Magazine Time Inc. 14 (Copyright 2002) As Congress gears up for hearings on Enron's $60 billion collapse, some Democrats are savoring a chance to investigate links between the company and its many G.O.P. friends in the White House and Congress. But the scandal may wind up tainting Democrats as well. Florida's state pension fund, which lost $325 million on Enron, is examining, as part of a broader inquiry, what role Frank Savage, a major Democratic donor, may have played in the state's loss. The fund's investments were directed by Alliance Capital Management, where Savage was a senior executive and chairman at the same time he sat on Enron's board. State officials want to know whether he inappropriately pushed Enron's stock on the pension fund while the energy giant was failing. Alliance more than doubled the state's stake in Enron since last August, buying 5.6 million shares in three months, even as stock prices fell and analysts questioned the firm's management and accounting practices. Coleman Stipanovich, deputy executive administrator of the pension fund, said his staff would like to learn what Savage knew of Enron's internal problems and what, if anything, he passed on to fund managers at Alliance. "We're going to want to be satisfied there was no undue influence," he told TIME. An Alliance spokesman said Savage, who headed an international subsidiary until leaving the firm in August, had no influence on Enron trading. Savage did not return calls for comment. Since joining Enron's heavily Republican board in 1999, he has donated $100,000 to Democrats and is raising money for New York gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall. Which proves, if nothing else, that Enron was a bipartisan debacle. --By Michael Weisskopf COLOR PHOTO: KEVIN LAMARQUE--REUTERS Sen. Byron Dorgan during a hearing on Enron's collapse Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sarah Palmer Internal Communications Manager Enron Public Relations (713) 853-9843
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