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Enron Mail |
sorry,,,your names were top on the list....but the computer didn't
"recongize" them???? weird. ---------------------- Forwarded by Cynthia Sandherr/Corp/Enron on 04/26/2000 01:42 PM --------------------------- From: Cynthia Sandherr 04/26/2000 01:33 PM To: Joe Hillings/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Joe Hartsoe/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Sarah Novosel/Corp/Enron@ENRON cc: dwatkis@barcepatt.com, awenner@velaw.com Subject: draft Gramm-Schumer Electricity bill Today, by either fax, messenger, or hand-delivery, you will receive the 37 page draft electricity deregulation bill to be introduced next week by Senators Gramm (R-TX) and Schumer (D-NY). We have until Friday, April 28th, 3:00p.m. EST to offer our legal technical changes. If you can return your comments to me (hand-written comments on the document itself are fine), I will communicate them directly to the Senators' offices. WE MUST KEEP THIS DOCUMENT COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL FOR OUR INTERNAL USE ONLY. WE SHOULD NOT COMMENT TO PRESS OR OTHERS THAT WE KNOW THE DOCUMENT EXISTS, NOR SHOULD WE DISCUSS THAT WE ASSISTED IN ITS WRITING. THE POLITICS REQUIRE THIS COURSE OF ACTION. Next week, after the bill is introduced, I recommend we make public comment in support of the legislation as it continues to move the process forward towards bill enactment this Congress. The bill contains a date certain of 1/1/2002; stranded cost recovery language; PURPA 210 repeal, the bundled FERC authority for interstate transmission and reliability plus the non-discrimination language we successfully lobbied for and about which Congressman Barton is already aware of Senator Gramm's support for Enron's position, PUHCA repeal, environmental conditionality and tax provisions for publics, coop's and nuclear decommissioning. Although we successfully drafted and communicated our transmission language to the Senators, their attorneys have made language adjustments (pride of authorship) which our attorneys should confirm have not caused material defect. If so, we can suggest drafting changes by this Friday. All the language you have has been agreed to by both Senators. The section missing, the environmental provision, is the last section the two men will work out this week and will be essential to final bill passage. Their goal remains addressing the grandfathered coal facilities and their disagreements are technical in nature. Namely: do you disqualify pre-1971 constructed coal facilities at a percentage responsible for a percentage of emissions (a Republican approach) or do you qualify facilities which can operate ( a regulatory approach favored by the Democrats)? With the Bush/Gore Presidential race in full swing, this issue brings ramifications and politics to bear at the highest level. As a further update on this issue: tomorrow the Senate holds a hearing on this issue with all four of the FERC Commissioners testifying, the Mid-American group and the DOE Pro-Competition Stakeholder group are meeting with each other to gain further consensus, plus both are meeting with NARUC's Chuck Grey and Chris Mele to seek consensus. I will attend all these meetings for Enron and report back our continued progress. Further, we are scheduling Dr. Tabors and Enron's Bob Schultz for a Congressional Hill briefing next week to discuss Dr. Tabors' research on the price spike as proof Congress must make structural changes to the interstate rules plus demonstrate Enron On-Line's ability to show market price inefficiency. Finally, we will participate in a "team drafting" exercise with MidAmerican on their compromise right of first refusal transmission language with Dan Watkiss as our representative, with others represented by Bill Sherman, Besty Moler and Randy Davis. This is an effort to include the Bennett Johnston ACE group into the MidAmerican fold. We did get MidAmerican to add the separation of market and transmission function language in the context of the RTO language. Much progress continues even though the House is not in session this week. The month of May will provide opportunities for Enron to continue intensifying our legislative efforts. To date, the strategy we at Enron laid out months ago is playing out with the two tracks of consensus and reliability crisis both receiving traction. We just need the dominoes we successfully laid out the strategy for months ago to continue falling. Please feel free to call me should you need additional information or have any questions.
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