Word: lay
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...White House has not disclosed who else was on Lay's list. But there's no question that Lay was focused on the FERC and its influence over Enron's markets. Pat Wood, whose name was on the list Lay gave the White House, is a respected former Texas regulator who has been backed by Enron since the early 1990s. The company first warmed to him because of his support for deregulation. Last week Lay's 1994 "Dear George" letter endorsing Wood was made public. After receiving the letter, Bush appointed Wood to the Texas Public Utility Commission. To Enron...
When Bush moved to the White House, Lay promoted Wood's appointment to the FERC. (Bush admired Wood and might have appointed him anyway.) Lay then spoke to FERC chairman Curtis Hebert, a Republican. Hebert says Lay warned that he should take a more aggressive approach to deregulation or risk losing Enron's support. Lay denies Hebert's claim. But Bush did name Wood as the FERC's chairman, and Hebert resigned. Later, under public pressure to impose price caps on California electricity, Wood joined in a unanimous vote to do so, a position Enron opposed. Now the FERC...
Another name on Lay's White House list was that of Nora Brownell, a Pennsylvania utility regulator. Enron discovered her in 1997 when it was trying to break into the lucrative Pennsylvania electricity market. (That year Bush adviser Karl Rove recommended that Enron hire political strategist Ralph Reed to build grass-roots support in the state.) Lay also jumped into the Pennsylvania fray, urging Bush to call his friend Governor Tom Ridge on behalf of Enron. "I called George W. to kind of tell him what was going on," Lay explained to the New York Times. "And I said that...
Later in 1997, commissioner Brownell cast a crucial vote when Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission decided to deregulate the state market. After Bush entered the White House, Lay promoted Brownell for a commissioner's post at the FERC. By that time, the electricity crisis had hit California, where Enron had major contracts. Amid calls for reregulation and electricity price caps to rescue the state, Lay attended a 30-min. meeting in the White House in April and gave an eight-point memo to Dick Cheney arguing strongly against such measures. Several weeks later, the energy task force chaired by Cheney...
...Enron employees who filed into a hotel meeting room on Oct. 23 were understandably nervous. Just days before, the energy-trading company had announced a $618 million loss for the third quarter, tied in part to the unraveling of one of its partnerships, and chief executive Ken Lay had called an all-hands meeting to reassure workers about the future. The affable Lay told everyone that if operating earnings were on target, as it appeared they would be, bonuses would be paid. The questions that followed veered toward the trivial--the Christmas party, parking privileges--until one persistent energy trader...