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Enron Mail |
Hap -- could you provide a response and get it to Meredith. I'd like to
correct this. ----- Forwarded by Steven J Kean/NA/Enron on 03/18/2001 07:54 PM ----- Joannie Williamson 03/16/2001 09:20 AM To: Steven J Kean/NA/Enron@Enron cc: Subject: Red Herring Article Thought you would like to see. Joannie ---------------------- Forwarded by Joannie Williamson/Corp/Enron on 03/16/2001 09:18 AM --------------------------- From: Chris Hilgert@ECT on 03/16/2001 08:43 AM To: Jeff Skilling/Corp/Enron@ENRON cc: Subject: Red Herring Article Jeff, I was recently skimming the Enron news articles on Yahoo Finance and saw this one published in Red Herring about the sad demise of the renewable energy business in California: http://www.redherring.com/index.asp?layout=story&;doc_id=1040018104&channel=100 00001 I thought the article was reasonable until I got to a certain part about the impact that recent high prices have had on these companies and Enron was mentioned in a rather improper light, in my opinion. Below is a short excerpt from the article with a particular sentence highlighted concerning Enron: "Proponents of renewable power viewed California's deregulation as flawed from the onset three years ago. Still, they anticipated that with adequate publicity millions of consumers could be persuaded to switch from the traditional power supply, which comes mainly from the more polluting fossil fuels and nuclear power, and that the demand would spur supply. The number of producers and retailers getting into the green market would then only grow -- as long as the big utilities didn't interfere. That's what almost happened. Over the last three years, retailers like Green Mountain Energy and Utility.com bought green power already available in California and started to invest in building their own renewable energy generators, like windmill farms and large solar-panel assemblies. Still, for all the optimism and effort, only about 200,000 customers -- less than 1 percent of the 8.5 million households that had the option of switching providers -- chose to support them. Many of those were swayed by a deregulation-mandated credit of 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour for consumers who switched. When natural gas prices were high, the credit actually represented a real savings. Historically, environmentally conscious consumers have paid a penny or two more per kilowatt hour for renewable energy, along with an average monthly surcharge of $5. Then, last fall, the fledgling industry started to crumble. Energy wholesalers like Enron (NYSE: ENE) and Calpine (NYSE: CPN) responded to a rising demand for energy by raising their prices from 6 cents per kilowatt hour to as much as $1.50. Green retailers had trouble getting credit to buy power. Many chose to drop out of the market rather than have to charge a price that was less than their cost. When the energy crisis hit, many green consumers' bills more than doubled." In light of the recent e-mail that was sent out, I thought that I would bring this to your attention as it may warrant a response to bring clarity that Enron does not raise prices, it transacts in a market where prices are set by supply and demand. The average person reading this could very easily come to the conclusion that Calpine and Enron broke the back of the renewable energy companies, which is clearly not the case. Nonetheless, thought you might find this of interest. Chris Hilgert Enron Americas Enron Compression Services
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