FERC lawyers oppose speeding up Enron/Avista
case
Reuters Company News
Monday October 7, 3:28 pm ET
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Lawyers with the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission said on Monday they oppose speeding up the case of whether Enron
Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ.PK - News) used Avista Corp. (NYSE:AVA - News) to inflate
electricity prices during the California power crisis.
FERC Judge Curtis Wagner recently
indicated he would try to accelerate
the case, in which Avista is accused
of acting as a middleman between
Enron's Power Marketing unit and its
Portland General Electric utility to
influence market prices.
The judge last month set a Nov. 26
deadline for FERC attorneys to detail
specific allegations against Avista,
and a series of other deadlines for
both sides to collect evidence and
expert testimony. At that time,
Wagner said he could issue a ruling
no sooner than August 2003.
Two FERC lawyers, Edith Gilmore
and Michael Cotleur, told the judge in a filing made public on Monday they opposed
any speedup in the case schedule, citing the complexity of the case and the huge
number of trading transactions being investigated.
"The amount of data that needs to be reviewed and analyzed in order for relevant
information to be proficiently extracted requires time and some training," the FERC
lawyers said. "Once documents are produced in discovery -- of which potential
objections are pending -- the staff will be examining energy traders' phone tapes for
Avista, Portland and Enron in addition to the transcripts of Avista's energy traders."
Avista has denied any wrongdoing, and said the series of 17 transactions at issue
netted profits of only $2,500 for Avista.
A similar case is pending against Enron and El Paso Electric Co. (AMEX:EE - News),
which was accused of giving control of some of its power plants to Enron without FERC
approval and failing to notify the agency of an arrangement in which Enron sold power
on its behalf.
In a third case, two Enron trading affiliates and its Portland General Electric utility are
suspected of improperly sharing market-sensitive information.
If eventually found guilty of wrongdoing, Avista, El Paso Electric and Portland General
Electric could be stripped of licenses to trade wholesale electricity.
The Avista case is pending before FERC in docket EL02-115.
biz.yahoo.com
Email this story - |
