Friends of the Aquifer, Inc. Appeal of Denials of Petitions to DEP,

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----- Forwarded by Steven J Kean/NA/Enron on 10/31/2000 07:29 AM -----

Wiley Cauthen
10/30/2000 05:29 PM

To: Shelley Corman/ET&S/Enron@ENRON
cc: Steven J Kean/NA/Enron@Enron, Rockford Meyer/FGT/Enron@Enron, Joe
Hillings/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Cynthia Sandherr/Corp/Enron@ENRON
Subject: Friends of the Aquifer, Inc. Appeal of Denials of Petitions to DEP,
DCA, and PSC

Chris Jensen, Executive Director of the Florida Energy Pipeline Association,
has learned from some DEP agency contacts that the Alliance (operating behind
the front organization known as Friends of the Aquifer, Inc.) has decided to
drop their lawsuits appealing the denials of their petitions to more severely
regulate pipelines in Florida. While this is good news for those of us
fighting the war here in Florida, the reason for this withdrawal of their
appeals of failed efforts on three different petitions at the state level in
Florida is because of their belief that their current activity at the Federal
level holds greater promise of success and their desire to concentrate their
resources in that effort.

My thoughts on this is that the pipeline industry should get organized and
execute a "full court press" defense which is proactive as we move into
increased future efforts at the Federal level by the Alliance through their
other front organizations. These organizations have been created to burden
pipeline competition to benefit the maritime interests.

From my vantage point I am limited to mostly what I see in the press, but
these front organization are winning the battle in the national press that I
have seen and heard. AOPL and INGAA do not come across in the press as being
equipped or prepared to handle the shaping of the pipeline safety issues in
the press that these Alliance front organizations have been doing.

Our Enron government affairs folks in Washington are knowledgeable,
experienced and capable. They have been through this battle and other battles
in the past. So this is not a criticism, but just a friendly observation
from a remote vantage point, that if the entire pipeline industry does not
develop a proactive plan to shape the issues in the national media during the
next year, we will find it very difficult or perhaps impossible to come out
of Congress with legislation that is reasonable and workable from a safety
regulation perspective. It has been my experience with the Alliance in the
past, that to any extent they are successful, they will then multiply their
efforts and broaden their field of attack.

The issue is not safety of pipelines, but competition for the transportation
of energy. We have an industry that can be very proud of it's record of
safety, economic benefits, reliability, public service, energy efficiency and
environmentally favorable service when compared to any other mode of
transporting energy. We have learned from our experiences, research and
mistakes in the past and will continue to learn in the future so that future
pipeline service will be even better for our people whom we serve.

Our entire energy pipeline industry (natural gas and petroleum) needs to
shape the issues in the national press and tell our very good story so the
politicians are not overrun with public opinion shaped by our maritime
competition.

Thanks for your interest. This is a "heads-up" that is probably not needed,
but I felt that there might be something in it that would help with a very
difficult current and future issue.