Enron & Friends: the intersection of energy and bribery
"The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating
plants and then
not enough power to power the power of generating plants." --
George W. Bush, 1/14/01
ENRON
& FRIENDS
How a
phony electricity shortage
exposed corruption in the White House
Extra Feature: Here
is my review of the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys In The
Room.And here's a review of a
mockumentary comedy called Memron. For other reviews of
films related to current events, go here.
=> The newest entry is #47,
August 25.
At the beginning of 2001 I created a
web page covering the California electricity crisis. I started
with a suspicion and a few hints of evidence, that the shortage was phony
and being created to manipulate the market. Throughout the year the
evidence mounted, and strange pronouncements and rulings came out of Washington
that did more to obstruct solutions than to help. In June, whistleblowers
verified that supply was being manipulated to raise prices. From
then on the story turned increasingly from one of economic manipulation
to one of political manipulation. The amount of crookedness involved
was beyond all my expectations. By late November, as bombs were falling
on Afghanistan, that page reached this conclusion:
"Let this be a lesson.
The
single most powerful faction in politics today is not liberalism or conservatism,
but privilege and corruption. That's what elected George W. Bush,
and Bill Clinton would never have been elected either without its approval....
Probably half of the federal budget gets spent according to its dictates."
Those words were truer than I knew, because the next thing that happened
was the collapse of Enron, an event that soon uncovered a web of financial
crime almost beyond belief in its enormity. And it became clear that
the way that Enron had gotten away with so much could be summed up in one
word: bribery.
The first purpose of this page was to publicize the whole ugly truth
of that scandal, in greater depth than you might see in typical news stories,
as it developed. I also continue to cover some residual stories from
the California electricity crisis, such as PG&E's adventures in bankruptcy
court, and the continuing efforts at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) to protect many of the other pirates involved. And I watch
out for new stories that involve corrupt links between government and the
energy industry, and occasional other tidbits about possible corruption
in the White House. Over time, quite a few different stories of political
corruption have been covered here.
The story, as I observed it at the time, is divided into the following
reports:
#47: August 25, 2004
Ken Lay does the perp walk, finally. A Bush insider promises
intervention in Iran if they win the election. California slowly
reclaims a small amount of the money stolen during the electricity crisis,
with no help from the federal government. PG&E comes out of bankruptcy
with a deal that basically says they keep all their money and we pay all
their debts. A macroeconomic analysis finds that the electricity
ripoff may be responsible for the major portion of America's current recession:
more than the tech stock collapse or 9/11 is. The Bush White House,
starting to thrash desperately as it realizes it's now the underdog in
the coming election, pressures Pakistan to come up with a terror suspect
capture during the Democratic convention, and Pakistan complies.
Then an administration spokesman blurts out the name of an undercover mole
inside Al Qaeda, aborting major anti-terror operations... apparently just
in an effort to prove that they weren't trying to make fresh terror alerts
out of old data. Then they launch a smear campaign against John Kerry and
try to deny their responsibility for it, which quickly leads to embarrassing
connections being revealed. Encouraging action, but little real success,
occurs on the touchscreen voting front. Hugo Chávez in Venezuela
survives a recall drive. Florida makes a second attempt at using
a bogus list of felons not allowed to vote: this one has tons of black
voters and virtually no hispanic ones. Halliburton gets in so much
trouble that the Army threatens not to pay them. And lots more.
#46: July 3, 2004
After eight months out of action, E&F is back. The
story of Halliburton's corrupt profiteering is coming to a head: it looks
like they might have exaggerated a bit when they believed that "We can
be as dumb and stupid as we want in the first year of a war, nobody's going
to care." Now even the Pentagon is upset with them. As well
they should be, since their abuses lead directly to greater hostility by
Iraqi insurgents, and more violent deaths on both sides. Also, the
long-simmering lawsuit brought against Dick Cheney's energy task force
reaches the Supreme Court, with about the kind of results you'd expect
from a justice who goes duck hunting with the defendant. Good old
Enron is back in the news, having been caught on tape gloating about "fucking"
California... just so this isn't an all-Cheney entry.
#45: October 11, 2003
Schwarzenegger is elected, prompting much embarrassment for us Californians
(me especially because of how I like to brag about my home state), and
proposes a new electricity deregulation scheme that looks rather alarmingly
too similar to the old one. Fortunately, it will never pass the legislature...
at least not soon... or at least that's what some opponents are saying.
I get a bright (?) idea for how to mobilize people effectively against
undependable electronic voting machines, which might at some future time
lead to me needing to stop writing Enron & Friends in order
to concentrate on that other issue.
#44: September 19, 2003
A long one. Developing countries flex their muscle in the WTO,
fending off the self-interested policy proposals of the rich countries
at a Cancun conference. The California recall election continues
to produce oddball developments, and things are not not looking too good
for the challengers. Conservative Tom McClintock may end up elbowing
aside Ahnuld as the principal GOP challenger, and not without good reason...
but the candidate who's looking surprisingly strong right now is Governor
Davis himself. Hugo Chávez in Venezuela fends off a recall
of his own. We note Chávez's role in the revitalization of
OPEC. FERC is still trying to protect some perpetrators of the California
electricity crisis. Congress starts to roll back various items of
Dubyan special-interest excess as the public's confidence in the White
House fades. Some investigation into how the California electricity
situation is shaping up today, with the crisis behind us... and a realization
that the reason Ohio's power lines overloaded and caused a massive blackout
was because deregulated electricity market-tradiing schemes have greatly
increased the amount of long-distance shuffling of electrical power, creating
demand on transmission lines that, from an engineering standpoint of simply
getting power from generators directly to customers, is entirely unnecessary
usage of the system. Our most frightening item is a look at the increasingly
sleazy story of Diebold's electronic voting machines, which are now plagued
with a whole list of embarrassments, and which may already have been used
to rig a statewide election. My county uses those machines... and
I'm voting absentee until they're removed.
#43: August 23, 2003
Just two main topics covered this time around: the eastern blackout,
and the California recall election. It's becoming increasingly clear
that the blackout originated at FirstEnergy Corp. in Ohio, which turns
out to be a snakepit of sleaze, with all the money that should have gone
to maintaining equipment going to politicians, lobbyists, and "consultants"
who, according to one legislator familiar with their ways of operation,
pretty much got everything they wanted from governments the dealt with.
Fine friends of Bush and Cheney, of course. And the recall story
is linked to this: it turns out that one political figure Ken Lay met with
in 2001, in an attempt to shore up Enron's faltering future as the electricity
crisis began to come to a close, was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Another
list of summaries of miscellaneous other stories, much shorter this time.
#42: August 17, 2003
It's the East Coast's turn for electricity trouble. We don't
know enough yet to talk about causes. In California, things look
ever more dismal for Governor Davis in the recall election, in part because
(unless the State Supreme Court does something about it), Arnold Schwarzenegger
could easily win even if far more voters vote to keep Davis, and would
vote for another Democrat rather than Ahnuld. But something good
has come out of the Schwarzenegger campaign: his is the first political
campaign in the state that has dared to suggest that the old Proposition
13 property tax cuts need to be reversed. Meanwhile, suspicions about
Halliburton's lucrative role in Iraq, and how they got it, are now more
than just suspicions. This edition closes with a long bulleted list
of briefly summarized corruption stories, as we have done several times
before.
#41: August 8, 2003
Enron & Friends returns after a long absence. Here
we cover a random sampling of stories that went by during the break.
That interval included such matters as a war with Iraq, but that's not
our topic. We do, however, look at the apparent effort to obstruct
investigation into 9/11, and efforts to protect Saudi interests that have
gotten so embarrassing that even the Saudi government wants Bush to just
put the facts before the public. The most up-to-date part is discussion
of the California special election on whether to recall Governor Gray Davis,
which is at least in part an outgrowth of the electricity crisis (in which
Davis did far more good than those now attacking him did). Davis's
Republican opponents seem to be unifying behind, God help us, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
#40: January 15, 2003
Bush is now pushing for another big tax cut; the centerpiece this time
is a tax cut for stock dividend income. Maybe this is supposed to
mollify the Wall Street investors who are very leery of a larger budget
deficit. Independent economists, and even Bush's former Treasury
Secretary, say the tax cut won't work as economic stimulus. Joe Lieberman
announces he's running for president. It's revealed that, yes, the
White House does inflate terror alerts. Henry Kissinger's replacement
to head the 9/11 investigating commission is in a joint oil venture with
Osama's brother in law. Some post-Enron reforms are making progress,
all coming from non-elected officials. Michael Powell at the FCC
gets cold feet about media monopolization. The Venezuelan coup group,
failing to win by popular means, gets dirtier. Maryland's new governor
purges environmental staffers. Background discussion on whether Clinton
was really much different from Bush on serving corporate interests.
Why to vote for third parties, especially if you currently don't vote.
#39: December 26, 2002
Citigroup and the other Wall Street firms that helped Enron with its
stock frauds are now paying the price in court: they just settled with
federal regulators for fines totalling well over a billion dollars, only
to lose a separate ruling that they can be held liable in Enron investor
lawsuits. An embarrassing 1997 videotape shows both George Bushes
listening to Enron executives joking about bogus accounting. Trent
Lott's racist faux pas is apparently setting off a power struggle
between factions inside the GOP, with the immediate result being more power
centralized in the White House. North Korea pushes our nuclear buttons;
Rumsfeld warns them we can fight a war against them and Iraq simultaneously.
Iraq's 12,000 page report on the weapons of mass destruction it claims
not to have apparently lists dozens of western corporations that have helped
them create such weapons; many in Europe are saying this is why almost
everyone, even the UN Security Council, is getting only a censored short
version of the report. Another grab-bag of minor stories.
#38: December 18, 2002
FERC is still protecting energy companies... but they may yet relent.
Bush shakes up his economic team but not his policies, which are still
a push for tax cuts that even Wall Street is increasingly leery of.
Bush's new appointments, in this area and several others, do nothing to
restore confidence. United Airlines fails to get corporate welfare,
and this may well be part of what pushed Bush's old Treasury secretary
out of office. In general, the GOP moves to centralize all decision
making with a few leaders. A very large grab-bag of numerous other
corruption stories.
#37: November 22, 2002
The Texas oil companies Hunt and Halliburton are making a new deal
with the White House to have taxpayers fund their gas pipeline project
in Peru. Senator Domenici pushes more favors for domestic gas companies,
including some under criminal investigation, with new revelations still
appearing regularly. A Pentagon general tells Colombia that they'd
better buy our planes if they want our aid. Bush is apparently giving
in to reform pressure in a couple of areas, like the SEC and the Federal
Election Commission. Spencer Abraham backs auto and oil industry
plans for hydrogen fuel-cell cars. The EPA's "New Source Review"
rule changes are a major concession to polluters.
#36: November 15, 2002
The new Republican majority may still fail to pass many Bush agenda
items, due to cold feet among some senators and representatives who actually
think about the consequences. Even Bush is beginning to doubt that
the FBI is handling domestic anti-terrorism competently. Anti-terrorism
defense funds are neglected for the sake of Star Wars missile defense.
Bush gets a UN resolution on Iraq and promptly starts to distort what the
security council members voted for. Increasingly fumbling relations
with Pakistan as a new government tries to form there. Janet Rehnquist
at HHS becomes the latest Bushie to get in trouble for selling out to special
interests. Legal pressure on generating companies that ripped off
California increases; one (Williams) reaches a settlement with the state.
#35: November 5, 2002
On this election day, Jeb Bush may win a second term thanks to vote-
stealing tactics put in place two years ago, which the state of Florida
already agreed needed to be corrected, but will not fix until after this
vote. Harvey Pitt's days at the SEC may be numbered. Tommy
Thompson at Health and Human Services continues to politicize scientific
committees, this time packing a lead poisoning group with industry representatives.
Some slow progress on legal penalties for Enron and Andersen.
#34: October 25, 2002
Senator Paul Wellstone is killed in a plane crash, just after the launch
of a massive out-of-state ad campaign against him. The effort to
start a war against Iraq not only involves covering up the North Korean
nuclear weapons effort for more than a year, it even involves setting up
radical Islamists, probably sympathetic to Al Qaeda, as the forces we will
back against Saddam Hussein. We promise Jordan half a billion a year
to cover any Iraq war-related losses they suffer. Germany complains
that we're no longer helping them track Al Qaeda, apparently just because
of a petty snit over their opposition to an Iraq war. Bush pretends
to rein in pharmaceutical industry legal abuses.
#33: October 18, 2002
Congressional reform measures are lost in the frenzy over Iraq; we
don't know if they will ever finish the corporate reform effort they began
so enthusiastically. But at least Andrew Fastow has finally been
arrested. A look back at the war against Mexico in 1846 as a parallel
to current efforts to wage unprovoked wars. A brief listing of many
corruption-themed news items over the several weeks since the last update.
#32: September 15, 2002
Even the effort to start a war against Iraq is tainted by bribery,
as the Bush administration starts handing out favors to foreign governments
considering whether to back our call for war. Various favors flow
in and out of Florida, involving multiple Bushes, former Enron subsidiaries
and other Bush donor companies, and a considerable amount of taxpayers'
money. However, some of the more reprehensible special interest measures
now being considered by Congress are losing steam. We learn about
some tax avoidance tricks that can only be used if you have at least $5,000,000,
and about how "Leave No Child Behind" means leaving every method of teaching
reading, except phonics, behind. The Federal Election Commission
considers unilaterally brushing aside most real campaign funding limits,
no matter what Congress thinks the law is.
#31: September 7, 2002
Congress is well on its way to fumbling some of the most obviously
needed reforms emerging not only from Enron, but from the Florida election
fiasco. The US position at the Johannesberg summit eventually reduces
other delegates to jeers and heckling. Dick Cheney stands on executive
privilege and refuses to obey subpoenas. An Enron-tainted judge that
Bush nominated for the court of appeals is rejected... but she's not the
worst nominee. San Francisco makes another try at public power.
#30: September 1, 2002
The Earth Summit in Johannesburg is, on the surface, snubbed by the
USA, but our delegation twists arms behind the scenes to the point where
the conference nearly falls apart. Thomas White is reportedly kept
on, despite severe scandal, to act as a lightning rod to protect Bush.
An analysis of congressional spending shows that democratic districts benefited
when democrats had the majority, and when republicans had the majority,
their districts benefited too -- by a far larger amount. Corporate
welfare, such as the recent farm bill, is a big factor in this. The
GOP more or less admits publicly that they are pushing a further tax cut
that they (fortunately) don't expect to be able to pass, just because they
don't have much else to campaign on.
#29: August 26, 2002
An ex-congressman and friend of Cheney who is on the board of El Paso
Natural Gas is accused by his ex-wife of having the company offer her hush
money to not tell what she knows. The first Enron executive to plead
guilty is Michael Kopper. Some progress is finally happening on recovering
money from those responsible. Bush tours the west to protests (as
he promotes cutting down trees to prevent forest fires) and fundraising
dinners with last minute discounts. A newspaperman who specialized
in Enron and related stories falls to his death.
#28: August 20, 2002
Bush suddenly notices that there's a budget deficit, and vetoes a bill
which manages to offend the groups he least wants to get protests from:
firefighters and police. His administration is still doing assorted
special favors for groups ranging from ocean polluters to the state of
Utah, including opening up the Canyons of the Ancients national monument
to drilling. The GOP has been thwarted in trying to persuade congressional
budget analysis to adopt its wishful-thinking methods of projecting tax
revenue. Bush distances himself a bit from Bill Simon, but not from
big California donors who smell even worse. His new rules for privacy
of medical records basically eliminate that privacy. Companies fighting
to preserve offshore tax shelters hire ex-congressmen as their most effective
lobbyists. Five Enron executives claim they should be paid millions
apiece by the bankruptcy court.
#27: August 8, 2002
Now the State Department intervenes to try to protect Exxon from being
sued by Indonesians who say the company hired thugs to beat and rape them.
They claim that allowing Exxon to be sued would hamper the War on Terror.
The pharmaceutical industry gets caught in a widening net of lawsuits.
A detente between the two parties over Congressional ethics violations
shows some cracks. The state of California defies FERC's attempts
to take over local regulatory powers.
#26: August 5, 2002
Bush is still getting caught in lies about his record at Harken Energy.
Support for offshore tax havens is finally eroding. Halliburton may
be losing big bucks over asbestos, but its subsidiary Kellogg Brown &
Root is still getting unusually juicy military contracts. The administration
moves to water down the new corporate responsibility bill as soon as Bush
signs it. FERC attempts to seize control of much of electricity regulation
from state authorities, provoking a storm of protest across the west.
Prosecutors investigate whether Enron used bribery to get contracts overseas.
Microsoft gets the State Department to help them lean on the government
of Peru. Saudi Arabia shows alarming signs of destabilizing.
#25: July 27, 2002
A progress report on the state legislature's investigation of Enron
and the other companies that stole $45,000,000,000 from the state by manipulating
the electricity market. An experiment with power deregulation in
New Delhi produces -- surprise -- shortages and high prices. John
McCain fights the Federal Election Commission's attempt to sabotage his
campaign finance reform law. Many companies join the list of those
in trouble, including one involving governor Jeb Bush. The press
presses the White House over Harken and Halliburton, to little visible
effect. Bush is still doing new favors for the energy and pharmaceutical
industries. A mixture of small victories and defeats on many corruption-related
measures before Congress, from bankruptcy reform to fast-track trade authority.
#24: July 20, 2002
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announces new rules for electricity
pricing, which look suspiciously like an attempt to let generators bring
back shortages and high prices in California, in a less obvious and extreme
form.
#23: July 11, 2002
Bush gives a much-anticipated Wall Street speech on corporate responsibility;
investors are unimpressed. SEC head Harvey Pitt is under increasing
attack for his cosiness with the companies he's supposed to police; he
used to represent them against the SEC. Merck pharmaceuticals, one
of the companies in trouble, turns out to have plenty of Bush "access",
like Enron had.
#22: July 4, 2002
Bush decides that the need to "restore investor confidence" -- that
is, to stop a godawful slide in the stock market -- requires that he smite
the corporate evildoers, but he is still resisting reforms behind the scenes.
At the same time, information comes out about how, when Bush himself was
under scrutiny for the same kind of scam, his father's appointee at the
SEC killed the investigation. In California, the PUC keeps ratepayers'
prices high, to pay off the state's debt to the companies that ripped it
off, and the legislature passes the state's first automotive greenhouse
gases law.
#21: July 1, 2002
Now that so many corporations have had to clean up their accounting
and report their revenues honestly, the one institution guilty of grossly
inflating revenues with funny accounting is the Republican party, in its
efforts to promote more tax cuts despite the previous one having caused
a big deficit.
#20: June 30, 2002
We learn of the Bush administration's acquiescence to the coal industry
lobby, prompting one internal resignation. The US Trustee assigned
to the PG&E bankruptcy case is fired by Attorney General Ashcroft,
apparently for being too pro-consumer. Halliburton is sued by its
stockholders for the fraudulent profit reporting instituted by Dick Cheney.
Dozens of companies have to restate their earnings; some are in legal trouble.
Ross Perot, of all people, turns out to be one of the guilty parties in
the scams that ripped off the state of California. Meanwhile, the
GOP works to allow tax exempt churches more leeway for political activism,
and the snowmobile lobby has no trouble getting Bush to stop a ban on snowmobiling
in Yellowstone. Vladimir Putin praises Bush as the most effective
lobbyist for American corporations. The EPA embarrasses Bush with
a report saying that global warming is a real problem and we have a responsibility
to do something about it. Long term projections show that talk of
how that would hurt the economy is exaggerated.
#19: June 29, 2002
The Corporate Responsibility Scandal is now the front burner issue
in Washington. The media has lost much diffidence on the subject.
MCI Worldcom goes belly-up, leaving a bad smell behind. Andersen
is found guilty of destroying evidence. Bush floats trial balloons
about possibly taking a firm stand against financial shenanigans and punishing
cheaters, maybe. The White House tries hard to quiet down talk about
Harken and Halliburton, the companies in which Bush and Cheney were guilty
of the exact sorts of crookedness that everybody is now out to police.
Meanwhile, the Federal Election Commission decides it doesn't feel like
enforcing the McCain-Feingold bill, even though it's now law. And
it turns out that the power generating companies in California are still
holding down the electricity supply.
#18: June 1, 2002
The first power alert since the crisis hits California. Dynegy,
and other Enron competitors, are in increasing legal and financial trouble,
and so are the banks that financed them. Phil Gramm, once Enron's
favorite senator, is now fighting to block reform of the financial industry.
Much grandstanding in Washington. The GOP still resists reform of
offshore incorporation to avoid taxes, and pushes a bankruptcy reform bill
that guts protections for the middle class but makes it easier for the
rich to protect assets.
#17: May 19, 2002
Enron's lawyers now claim that after the internal memos that detail
the scams they were using to raise California electricity prices were written,
they promptly stopped committing these frauds. But the worst of the
artificial shortages came after that time. We learn how fellow crooked
companies Enron and Global Crossing cooperated to hide debts and inflate
earnings reports, via a round-trip deal with each other that both reported
as a big profit. Joe Lieberman makes like he's fighting for consumers.
A White House memo reveals instructions to downplay the California power
crisis. Energy secretary Spencer Abraham still defends the lie that
the crisis was caused by inadequate generators and transmission lines,
though the same generators and lines worked fine in 1999, when demand was
higher than it has been since. Bush announces the US will not participate
in the 2005 follow-up to the Kyoto Conference on dealing with climate change.
#16: May 11, 2002
Enron's internal papers reveal their knowledge of using fraudulent
means to push electricity prices up. California officials appeal
to the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, to help them get some money back.
But Ashcroft's dealings with polluter Koch Industries show him to be someone
who might let any corporation get away with anything.
#15: May 4, 2002
In the White House they're passing out questionnaires to ask everybody
what their Enron involvement has been. A subsidiary of Cheney's former
company Halliburton gets a rather unusual (and lucrative) contract to provide
services in Afghanistan that would normally be done by soldiers.
A bit about Halliburton's unflattering history with the IRS. The
US Senate investigates price fixing in the gasoline market. Three
petrochemical companies lose a class-action suit over the gasoline additive
MTBE. The ethanol that's supposed to replace MTBE is being produced
in a polluting manner, but cleanup is promised. The mainstream media
finally concludes that the electric power crisis in California was manufactured
through fraud and bribery, which the liberal fringe press (and this website)
reported a year earlier while the big news companies remained remarkably
oblivious.
#14: April 29, 2002
Enron's executives (like those at PG&E, and many other companies)
responded to the bankruptcy by sharing big chunks of the remaining cash
among themselves; the SEC tried to force them to justify the move, but
failed to convince a judge to block it. We learn the tale of two
California state senators who solicited money from Enron right in the middle
of the legislature's investigation into the electricity crisis. More
memos show the dealings of non-Enron energy industry lobbyists with the
Cheney energy policy task force. Democrats say Republicans are watering
down new bills that deal with financial industry conflicts of interest.
#13: April 14, 2002
The exact techniques that Enron, and other power companies, used to
manipulate the electricity market in California emerge. Many of them
involve sending electricity on round trips out of state and back in, clogging
transmission lines (either in reality or just on paper), wasting energy,
and raising prices at both ends. Other tricks used at different times
amount to "megawatt laundering", and even "selling the same electrons twice"
in the early stages, according to state officials. Despite this,
generators still deny responsibility for the spiral of high electricity
prices. One of the chief implementors of these fraud techniques was
Army secretary Thomas White. Meanwhile, coal power companies are
fighting to exempt themselves from pollution laws. Cheney and Bush
are cooperating with them.
#12: April 4-9, 2002
A small White House scandal involving a Taiwanese slush fund emerges.
Andersen loses business right and left and has to lay off employees; their
CEO resigns. Energy secretary Spencer Abraham releases some subpoenaed
documents, and large numbers of them turn out to have the significant information
censored out. Even the uncensored portion shows the administration
following the wishes of industrial lobbyists and ignoring environmental
groups. Pressure increases on Army secretary Thomas White, formerly
of Enron.
#11: March 22-25, 2002
Phil Gramm, Enron's pet senator, still defends them, and the White
House's relations with them. Senator McCain finally passes his campaign
finance reform bill, putting Bush into an awkward bind. Senator Mitch
McConnell, an ardent foe of reform, hires Kenneth Starr to argue against
it in court. William Greider names democrats tainted by Enron, most
prominently Joe Lieberman.
#10: March 15, 2002
Andersen is indicted for shredding Enron papers. The other auditors
are rumored to be no cleaner. California sues four power generating
companies. Congress defeats the auto mileage bill, with the auto
industry handing out rather modest campaign contributions to those voting
against it. Some observations about the passivity and ineffectiveness
of today's news media, who do far less real reporting than they used to.
#9: March 6, 2002
Two judges order Dick Cheney and six federal agencies to hand over
Enron-related documents. Compliance is slow. Wall Street analysts
come under fire for hyping Enron stock even after it was clearly going
bad. Rumors about Enron's sleazy internal culture. A list of
well-known journalists who took Enron money.
#8: February 26, 2002
The Senate debates the Bush energy plan. Bush stands in front
of hybrid cars to promote the plan's alleged ecological value, though it's
the same policy Dick Cheney got from Enron last year, full of rewards to
the energy industry, including outright corporate welfare. The auto
industry fights a move to require higher mileage from SUVs. California
struggles with FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) over possible
refunds for electricity ripoffs. Bill Moyers looks into Enron's machinations
to manipulate FERC, including installing its current head. Texas
Republicans sue over enronownsthegop.com. The Center for Public Integrity
concludes that corporate tax cheaters costs the average taxpayer $1600
per year.
#7: February 14, 2002
Kenneth Lay takes the fifth, like most of his cohorts. Congress
wrestles with the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, always
defeated in the past -- this time, the effort has broad support.
Rumors that Dick Cheney will resign. Bush announces a plan to deal
with global warming: entirely voluntary, with complete exemptions for power
plants, and its most optimistic target is modest relative to the Kyoto
Protocol.
#6: February 4-8, 2002
Congressional investigations into Enron are under way, and executives
start taking the fifth. Governor Jeb Bush denies contacts with Enron,
and turns out to be lying. Investigative bodies start demanding Enron-related
documents from the White House, and from the Department of Defense.
Andersen attempts to clean up its act.
#5: February 2002
How almost all politicians, except Ralph Nader, enthusiastically supported
the California utility deregulation measure at the time it was passed...
though a similar measure in England had resulted in shortages and rising
prices.
#4: February 1, 2002
A "smoking gun" memo from Enron chairman Ken Lay to Dick Cheney's energy
policy task force is revealed, showing whose instructions the task force
was following. Many California officials tell how they were denied
access to the group that Enron was granted, during the height of the electricity
crisis. Enron paid journalists to influence coverage. And they
hired Robert Reed of the Christian Coalition to mobilize the Christian
right behind Enron's brand of utility deregulation.
#3: January 29, 2002
Enron is sued by its employees, trying to recover some of the cash
that its executives have hidden away overseas. The Bush administration,
it turns out, blocked a Clinton-era move to dig into overseas bank accounts,
shell corporations, and tax shelters, which are widely used by organized
crime and terrorist groups. Dick Cheney refuses to let the public
know how his energy policy task force arrived at its recommendations.
Bush and his spokesmen attempt feeble lies to distance themselves from
Enron and Ken Lay, but the deep entanglement between Enron and the Republican
party is now clear. How Enron ripped off Dabhol, India -- they not
only got $3,000,000,000 for a power plant that only ran for a few years,
but paid local police to attack protesters in their homes. Uncertainty
about whether the death of Enron executive Cliff Baxter was a suicide.
#2: January 2002
Enron's role in engineering the California "deregulation" debacle starts
coming out. We learn that Enron had almost a thousand offshore shell
corporations, and received huge refunds from the IRS while rarely paying
any taxes. PG&E is in bankruptcy court, and trying to stick ratepayers
with all of their debts while keeping their cash.
#1: December 1, 2001
After the California electricity crisis has been brought under control,
an unexpected consequence is that the giant electricity company Enron suddenly
collapses into bankruptcy. It soon becomes apparent that their auditor,
Andersen, collaborated in grossly dishonest reporting of the company's
financial condition.
Background (2001)
My original page on the California electricity crisis,
from which this page is an outgrowth.
 over
to my original 2001 California electricity
crisis page
 miscellaneous
micro-rants
on other energy topics
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