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It's Time to Mess With Texas...
Tom Elias: Texans call shots on punishing energy profiteers Texans -- Oklahomans, too -- were laughing at their energy pigeons in Some of those folks aren't laughing anymore. Enron's office tower, scene of many a scam-related celebration, now belongs to Chevron-Texaco -- a California-based oil company. And Enron's top officials are either convicted or will stand trial in due course. Newly discovered tapes provide increased impetus for lawsuits seeking much larger refunds and penalties than any yet assessed. But most of the perpetrators of Maybe that's because Texans are still making the key decisions on what penalties these firms will pay. The lead Texan, of course, is President Bush, who took more campaign-related money from former Enron chief Kenneth Lay than from any other individual during his 2000 campaign and his prior runs for governor of Bush has kept his longtime It's Wood who controls the penalties to be assessed against the villains in the energy story. So far, they've paid little more than a figurative parking ticket. The Tulsa-based Williams Cos. are the latest beneficiary of Wood's largesse with money that should be coming back to This deal means Williams likely won't have to pay one red cent in refunds, even though its energy traders were among the first to be fingered in crooked deals. Williams, in fact, was one of the larger players in the crunch. Even if its claim to the $140 million had been legitimate -- which is highly questionable -- that sum is but a small fraction of what the company should be paying. Consumers may someday see some pennies deducted from future electric bills because of this settlement, but even that is not sure. The proceeds might still be pocketed by the big utilities who lobbied so hard for the 1996 deregulation law that set up the energy crunch. About the same time it caved to Williams, FERC was rejecting a proposal by the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state power grid, to allow it to fine companies $110,000 a day in cases of market manipulation. "We have concerns with the level and administration of the proposed penalties," the Wood-led commission said. Translation: We won't let you fine our pals much, no matter how many crimes they commit. All this came after FERC earlier fined Houston-based Reliant Resources $13.8 million for the most egregious two days of its thoroughly documented market manipulating. In fact, it seems likely FERC will fine all the energy producers a grand total of about $3.3 billion for their thievery. By contrast, ex-Gov. Gray Davis figured the actual level of overcharges at more than $9 billion and new Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not revised that number downward. All this means proven energy manipulators like Williams, Mirant, and the Houston-based Dynegy, Reliant Resources and El Paso Corps. almost certainly will keep at least $6 billion in illicit profits. Proving once again that it helps to have friends in high places. Tom Elias is author of The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It, available in a second edition. E-mail tdelias@aol.com. Publish Date:
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