Senator urges regulators to reject Enron's settlement offer

By GENE JOHNSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- In a harshly critical letter being sent Monday, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject a $2.3 million settlement reached between the agency's staff and the bankrupt Enron Corp. over allegations the company cheated Northwest businesses and utilities.

Not only did Enron cheat them of far more than that during the 2000-01 Western energy crisis, Cantwell said, but terms of settlement would seal much evidence of Enron's misdeeds - making it harder for some businesses and utilities to prove that they should not have to pay Enron for broken contracts.

"I am deeply troubled by FERC staff's willingness to abandon the Northwest stakeholders who are simply trying to avoid having to pay Enron more money - for power the bankrupt company never even delivered," the Washington Democrat wrote to the commission's chairman, Joseph Kelliher.

Cantwell's office provided a copy of the letter to The Associated Press on Sunday.

Cantwell, who has long asserted that FERC was asleep at the wheel as Enron deliberately drove up prices during the energy crunch, also scheduled a news conference in Seattle on Monday with some of the entities hurt most by Enron's gaming of the market, including the Snohomish County Public Utility District, which says it was overcharged at least $20 million, and the Seattle operations of Kansas-based Ash Grove Cement Co.

Link Here