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Enron Mail |
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Susan J Mara X-To: Steven J Kean, Karen Denne, Mark Palmer, Jeff Dasovich, James D Steffes, Richard Shapiro, Harry Kingerski X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Jeff_Dasovich_Oct2001\Notes Folders\All documents X-Origin: DASOVICH-J X-FileName: jdasovic.nsf In case you didn't see it 7/16/01 -- Palmer quoted Senate power play jolts Enron 'The whole thing stinks to high heaven." That was the assessment Adrian Moore, executive director of Reason Public Policy Institute, gave of a state Senate committee's recent move to hold Enron Corp. in contempt for refusing to hand over subpoenaed documents. We're inclined to agree. The Texas-based energy merchant has filed a countersuit in Sacramento Superior Court, arguing that the Senate has no right to wield influence beyond state borders and that putting the documents into public view "jeopardized confidential business information," the Register reported Thursday. The court should order the Senate either to make its document request more specific or to drop the contempt charge and subpoena altogether. Robert Levy, a constitutional law expert at the Cato Institute, told us that Enron's point about disclosing confidential information will be its strongest argument in court. While Enron can't hide behind state borders, Levy says the Senate's request is not tailored narrowly enough to ensure information that could damage Enron's market viability is not released. He said the Senate should have to let a judge decide whether releasing the documents is necessary for its investigation and avoids unfairly harming Enron. Instead, the full Senate just has to approve the committee's recommendation for Enron's executives to become criminals. "It seems to me that's a scary proposition," Levy said. "Why should the Senate have such plenary power?" Good question. Moore told us it's because the energy crisis has created an "all-bets-are-off" situation in Sacramento, where anything goes so long as it's attacking the energy companies. Because Enron is just a merchant, not a producer, of energy, it couldn't have had much at all to do with manipulating the market. "It's impossible," Enron spokesman Mark Palmer told us Friday. "We don't have anything to withhold. We don't have an interest in high prices in California. We're just interested in a marketplace that works." Added Moore, "It's pretty hard to spin a realistic scenario where they (Enron) engaged in gouging." Moore said a judge's recent ruling that criticized Davis' allegations against energy producers gives hope the Sacramento court very likely could side with the law rather than the witchhunt. Here's hoping he's right. Sue Mara Enron Corp. Tel: (415) 782-7802 Fax:(415) 782-7854
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