Enron and Davis
Charles R. Smith
Friday, Aug. 22, 2003
California Governor Blacks Out the Truth
On Aug. 20, 2003, California Gov. Gray Davis stated that Enron and the Bush administration were to blame for the Golden State's electricity crisis.
"I inherited the energy deregulation scheme which put all of us at the mercy of the big energy producers. We got no help from the federal government. In fact, when I was fighting Enron and the other energy companies, these same companies were sitting down with Vice President [Dick] Cheney to draft a national energy strategy," stated Davis.
However, Davis is playing fast and loose with the real facts of his relationship with Enron. For example, according to the Sacramento Bee, Davis has received $119,500 in campaign donations from Enron, including $42,500 since becoming governor. Davis openly stated that he would not return the Enron money.
Davis has previously been quick to blame Enron for California's lack of power. In May 2002, Davis called Enron executives "robber barons."
"This is more than greed. This is depravity," stated Davis.
"As far as I'm concerned, the persons responsible are a menace to society and should be facing serious jail time, not 9 a.m. tee times," said Davis.
In 1999, only months before the California energy crisis, Davis led a $200,000 trade trip to Europe for Enron. Davis traveled at California taxpayer expense with his wife for two weeks in Europe and finally in ancient Greece, lobbying on behalf of Enron for the Greek Wind Project.
Davis also took a close-knit group of heavy campaign donors along on his trip to Greece. The group included grocery store magnate Ron Burkle, who donated $350,000 to Davis, and workers' compensation insurance executive Stanley Zax, who donated $100,000 to Davis.
My Big Fat Greek Donor
The project in Greece was so important that Davis also took his good friend, major DNC donor and Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos.
Tsakopoulos and his family are million-dollar contributors to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic candidates including Davis, Al Gore, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Tsakopoulos also spent time as a guest in the White House Lincoln bedroom.
According to documents forced from the U.S. Commerce Department, Enron noted that Davis and Tsakopoulos were tripping to Greece with some very unusual comments.
"Best man at my Greek wedding," noted one handwritten comment next to a Los Angeles Times article on Tsakopoulos attached to documents from the U.S. Embassy in Athens.
"Major Clinton donor – may be on Clinton trip to Greece," states the handwritten comments.
Enron considered the trade trip so important that they also included a 22-page briefing paper addressed to Gov. Davis detailing the "Greek Wind Project Permitting Issue." Interestingly, the same briefing paper made its way into the U.S. commercial section of the American Embassy in Athens.
The 1999 documents are part of a long string of heavy lobbying efforts that the Clinton administration carried out to convince the Greeks to buy Enron wind products for Crete.
For example, a 1998 document prepared for the U.S. ambassador in Greece noted, "The company [Enron] was given an installation license last year, but construction was held up while an archeological study was performed. In the interim, the licenses lapsed and Enron's request for a renewal has not been answered."
"Enron should send more high-level visitors to Greece to underscore the importance of this market," states the 1998 memo to the U.S. ambassador to Greece.
Davis Stiffs Enron
More importantly, the facts surrounding the California energy crunch do not support Davis' claim that Enron executives committed crimes. According to a study done by the CATO institute, the California governor is not telling the truth about Enron.
"Records pried from the governor's office by legal action reveal that during last year's crisis Enron was charging less for electricity than the market average and significantly less than Davis's own L.A. Department of Water & Power, under the direction of the governor's 'electricity czar,' David Freeman," states an article by Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies and Peter VanDoren, editor of Regulation, at CATO.
"Enron was accepting IOUs from the power companies and the state of California rather than demanding cash upon delivery at the height of the crisis. But trusting the state to make good on its promises to pay was an example of the corporate heart ruling the head. According to energy economist Phil Verleger, the state of California ended up stiffing Enron for millions of dollars, a (dare we say 'ruthless'?) maneuver that certainly didn't help Enron stay out of bankruptcy," notes the CATO institute report.
The fact is that Enron supplied barely 4 percent of California's power. Davis' attempt to paint the power shortage in California as some sort of right-wing conspiracy is so false as to be ridiculous.
Clinton, Davis and Enron
The fact is that Enron became a large, corrupt corporation with the support and approval of Gray Davis and Bill Clinton.
I have written several stories on the 5,000 pages of Enron materials forced from the U.S. Commerce Department by the Freedom of Information Act. In 1994, Enron did a dirty deal with Indonesian dictator Suharto and paid millions to Suharto's son for an electric power plant that was never built. These facts are known because the Clinton administration documented and supported the deal.
The documented evidence shows that Clinton worked for Enron in China, Vietnam, South Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina, Mozambique, South Korea, Japan, Belgium, France, Russia, the Philippines, the West Bank and Uzbekistan.
Enron's chairman met with Clinton and Gore in the Oval Office. Enron gave $420,000 to the DNC. Enron donated $100,000 to Clinton's inauguration festivities. The taxpayer-supported Export-Import Bank subsidized Enron for more than $600 million in just one transaction at the behest of President Clinton.
Many former Clinton administration officials eventually went to work for or lobbied on behalf of Enron, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Linda Robertson, former Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Elizabeth Moler, and the former media adviser to Vice President Al Gore, Greg Simon.
The scandal that became Enron corrupted nation after nation, spreading its wings as part of Bill Clinton's stained legacy. The Enron stain on California Gov. Gray Davis shows clearly in the light. |
