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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (253715)	5/8/2002 7:09:16 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Stunning depths of government collaboration with Enron revealed: Institute for Policy Studies uncovers $7 billion in public assistance for Enron's global operations WASHINGTON (March 22, 2002) - The Institute for Policy Studies today released an exhaustive study of public financing toward Enron's overseas expansion. IPS' new report, Enron's Pawns: How Public Institutions Bankrolled Enron's Globalization Game, (Adobe Acrobat format - download free reader.) explores how the now-fallen giant's rise to global prominence absolutely depended upon close financial relationships with U.S. agencies, the World Bank, and other government institutions. "It should be a national disgrace that the U.S. government was subsidizing Enron's far-flung and often harmful global operations," said John Cavanagh, Director of IPS. Researchers from the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (SEEN), a project of IPS, have discovered that over the past decade, 21 agencies representing the U.S. government, multilateral development banks, and other national governments helped leverage Enron's global reach with $7.2 billion in public financing approved for 38 projects in 29 countries. In addition to detailing exactly who funded which Enron projects, the study reveals that long before Enron's tricks came to light in the United States, the company was infamous for even more egregious practices in the developing world. Armed with taxpayer financing from agencies like the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the World Bank, Enron marched into developing countries' energy sectors. The global strategy of privatizing these countries' energy sectors has its origins in the Reagan Administration, and became a major priority of international financial institutions in the 1990s. The end results were not reliable energy at an affordable price, but rather, price hikes, blackouts, shady deals cut by government officials, and street riots in which people died. Enron's infamous partner in crime, accounting firm Arthur Andersen, also played a role in this global drama: It assessed a utility in the Dominican Republic that Enron ended up buying at almost $1 billion less than its actual value, reaping enormous profits for the company. "When Enron exacted its modus operandi abroad, U.S. public officials considered it good for U.S. business. Only when Enron's scandals began to affect Americans did these officials and institutions hold the corporation at arm's length," said Daphne Wysham, director of SEEN, and co-author of the report. "And only when Enron's leadership revealed their greed on home turf did it become the biggest corporate scandal in recent U.S. history." Enron's Pawns will be available on SEEN's website, seen.org, beginning at noon Friday, March 22. For further information, contact Jim Vallette at 646-522-1605 or Daphne Wysham at 301-573-2468. seen.org

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (253715)	5/8/2002 8:39:43 PM
From: RON BL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Scandal-plagued Enron Corp., cited by Democrats as a big giver to President Bush and the GOP, gave a cool $420,000 to Democrats when the corporation was desperate to get the Clinton administration's help in having the potentially disastrous Kyoto treaty made the law of the land. Senate ratification of the treaty, which foes explained would have cost the U.S. billions and had a deadly effect on the U.S. economy, would have been a bonanza for Enron. What's Good for Enron Isn't Good for America According to Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper, a December 1997 private internal memo written by Enron executive John Palmisano said the treaty would be "good for Enron stock!!" "The memo said the Kyoto treaty - later signed by Mr. Clinton and leaders of 166 other countries, but never ratified by the Senate - 'would do more to promote Enron's business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States.'" Easy Access to Clinton and Gore Writing in Wednesday's Times, Seper reports, "Federal and confidential corporate records show that after donating thousands of dollars in soft money and PAC donations beginning in 1995, Enron received easy access to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore." Seper revealed that Clinton's Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency "often made themselves available for Enron executives to discuss the firm's needs, according to records, even arranging for meetings with key congressional staffers." Enron's drive to get the Kyoto Protocol ratified continued even after the Senate voted 95-0 to set restrictions on any climate negotiations. The Senate resolution warned U.S. diplomats against negotiating any climate treaty in which less developed nations such as communist China would have fewer restrictions imposed on them than the U.S. and other developed countries. That vote gave clear warning that the Senate would never ratify the treaty, costing Enron potential profits in the billions. As a result, Enron used its open door to the Clinton White House to lobby hard for a treaty that would give it the ability to buy and sell trading credits to emit carbon dioxide as part of a strategy to reduce "greenhouse gases." Under the system pushed by Enron, new investments in gas-fired plants and pipelines would be expanded and coal-fired power plants, which emit more carbon dioxide, would be curtailed. Seper noted, "Natural gas, electricity and their delivery systems constitute Enron's major businesses." During a White House meeting in July 1997, Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay prodded Clinton and Gore to support a "market-based" approach to what he described as the problem of "global warming," a theory discredited by a majority of the world's climatologists. In the face of Senate hostility to the Kyoto accords, Enron continued to urge the Clinton administration to seek a "restructuring" of the treaty that would have been a "first step to solving the problems of global climate change." Seper notes that the company "sought laws that would have favored Enron's natural gas inventory and reduced competition from coal." On Feb. 20, 1998, during a meeting with Energy Secretary Federico Pena, Lay "encouraged the Clinton administration to seek electricity legislation favored by Enron," outlining for the secretary what the company believed were the "important" pending legislative concerns. "Today's meeting between Ken Lay and Energy Secretary Federico Pena to discuss electricity legislation went very well," said a memo written by Jeff Keller, the company's Washington governmental affairs chief. "Secretary Pena indicated that the White House proposed bill is 'on the president's desk,' and that Clinton could be convinced to release the White House proposal in the next few days," Keller wrote. "He suggested that President Clinton might be motivated by some key contacts from important constituents." The records showed that Lay took that advice and sent a letter to Clinton that day, asking him to "move this matter forward." Seper writes that Clinton administration officials have denied any wrongdoing, saying they were only responding to constituent requests. Hypocrisy Alert But while such Democrats as Rep. Henry Waxman of California attempt to create suspicion that Enron's contributions to President Bush and other Republicans gave the company undue influence with the administration without a scintilla of evidence to back up their imaginings, more real proof of the cozy ties between Enron and the Clinton administration continues to unfold. Seper recalls, for example that, the Washington-based Export-Import Bank approved a $302 million loan toward a $3 billion Enron-controlled power plant in India in 1994. Wrote Seper: "Mr. Clinton took an interest in the deal, asking the U.S. ambassador to that country and his former chief of staff, Thomas F. 'Mack' McLarty, then a presidential adviser, to monitor the proposal. "Mr. McLarty - who later became a paid Enron director - spoke with Mr. Lay on several occasions about the plant. In 1996, four days before India granted approval for Enron's project, the Houston-based firm contributed $100,000 to the Democratic Party."