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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (796)	1/18/2002 1:22:21 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

Another one bites the dust. Former Enron executive resigns from PUC Associated Press AUSTIN -- The state's top utility regulator, a former Enron Corp. executive whose boss donated money to Gov. Rick Perry after the appointment, has quit amid congressional investigations over the company's financial meltdown. Max Yzaguirre, formerly president of Houston-based Enron's operations in Mexico, told the Public Utility Commission staff that his resignation was effective today, PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said. Yzaguirre was not available for comment but was expected to issue a statement later today. Yzaguirre told the Republican governor Thursday he was resigning after weeks of turmoil over his selection, The Dallas Morning News reported today. Sources familiar with the decision told the newspaper on condition of anonymity that Yzaguirre's appointment as chairman of the three-member commission had become a political liability and would continue to be raised by opponents trying to damage Perry's election effort. His term had been due to end in 2005. Perry, who became governor when President Bush resigned, is running this year for a full term as governor. The governor's office did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press today. A spokeswoman for Perry Thursday declined to discuss Yzaguirre's situation. "The governor maintains that Max Yzaguirre is qualified and was qualified at the time of his appointment to serve on the commission," spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "He has been a fair and balanced voice." Since his appointment in June, Yzaguirre led the agency in its move to deregulate the electricity market, an area of great interest to Enron. State lawmakers approved the electric deregulation bill in 1999. State Rep. Steve Wolens, D-Dallas, who co-sponsored legislation that opened the utility market on Jan. 1, said Yzaguirre's resignation should not affect the state's newly deregulated electric market. "The issue of electric deregulation is beyond any one person," Wolens said. Critics had questioned the former Enron executive's connections with the now-bankrupt company, including a $25,000 campaign contribution to Perry from Enron chairman Kenneth Lay a day after the appointment. Perry has said the donation so close to the selection was "totally coincidental." In his initial application, Yzaguirre said he had headed Enron's operations in Mexico. As news reports mounted over Enron's financial troubles last year, he amended the report to include several other Enron affiliates, which he said he had forgotten. In December, Democrats criticized the governor's office for blanking out parts of Yzaguirre's criminal record, which included a federal fine for killing an endangered whooping crane in 1989. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez on Thursday said $220,000 in campaign contributions to Perry from Enron executives since 1994 raised doubts about whether there can be an impartial investigation over the impact of Enron's collapse on the state's finances. It is uncertain how Enron's federal bankruptcy filing will affect debts owed to the General Land Office and the state comptroller. "I am certain I am not the only Texan who wonders what the total effect of this debacle is on the state," Sanchez said in a prepared statement. "All those who depend on the performance of our investments need to know whether the state's accounting or investment practices were a factor in these losses and what is being done to recover whatever scarce state funds might be recoverable."