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

To: jlallen who wrote (692370)	7/17/2005 10:22:34 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Cheney and Lay colluded to set the energy policy of no caps. Wilson opened the door to this disaster with HIS deregulation of utilitis, I pointed this out to harris after he tried to blame the mess on Davis. THE ENRON COLLAPSE Memo details Cheney--Enron links Company's suggestions resembled elements of the administration's energy policy David Lazarus, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, January 30, 2002 This memo was given to Vice President Dick Cheney by Enro... While the White House insists that details of its talks with Enron officials remain secret, a memo outlining those discussions reveals the extent to which the Houston energy giant lobbied to influence government policy. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle, was handed by former Enron Chairman Ken Lay to Vice President Dick Cheney last April when the two met to discuss the administration's response to California's energy crisis. The White House acknowledged last night that aspects of the memo resembled elements of Cheney's energy plan, but it refused to say whether the document was included in notes that Cheney now refuses to divulge to congressional investigators. California ratepayers' worst suspicions were confirmed when audiotapes were released the other day revealing that Enron plotted in January 2001 to take a power plant offline in a deliberate bid to jack up electricity prices during the worst of the energy crisis. sfgate.com What few people may realize, though, is that just three months after the company's power-plant conspiracy, which resulted in rolling blackouts throughout Northern California, Enron was making its case to the White House for why the government shouldn't cap energy prices. And Vice President Dick Cheney, who met with then-Enron Chairman Ken Lay in April 2001 and was handed a secret memo stating the company's policy wishes, subsequently echoed Enron's position on why price caps are unnecessary. I obtained a copy of the three-page memo in early 2002 and showed that a number of Enron's recommendations either made it into Cheney's energy plan or were reflected in comments by senior Bush administration officials. What wasn't known at the time was the extent of Enron's market manipulation even as it was influencing national energy policy. The tapes were released last week by a utility in Washington state that's suing Enron over a costly power contract. They include a phone conversation between an Enron trader and a Las Vegas energy official. The trader, identified by the utility as Bill Williams sfgate.com Under Wilson's direct order, the utilities also were prohibited from contracting ahead with these firms for power, forcing them to buy power on the wild spot market, with no limit being placed on the price they would have to pay.