06.07.04

Cantwell Calls on Attorney General John Ashcroft to Make Public All Previously Unreleased Enron Tapes

Cantwell and Snohomish PUD General Manager Ed Hansen Meet Monday Morning to Discuss Next Steps to Secure Ratepayer Relief

EVERETT, WA - U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell and Snohomish County PUD GM Ed Hansen today met to plan a joint strategy to gain relief for Washington state ratepayers in the wake of the Enron tapes obtained by SnoPUD and aired on CBS last week.

In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Cantwell called on the Department of Justice to make public all previously unreleased Enron audio tapes that remain in DOJ's possession.

"The criminals at Enron who stole from us should be locked up, not the audio tapes which provide evidence of their crimes," Cantwell said. "Clearly the public has a right to hear the full and complete story. Releasing every single audio tape can only strengthen our case before FERC and the courts that we deserve relief from the damage that Enron's misbehavior continues to cause."

Incredibly, Enron is suing a number of utilities throughout the West for more than half a billion dollars. This includes a case against SnoPUD, which Enron is suing for $122 million, claiming that the utility acted illegally when it ended a 2001 contract resulting from manipulative practices in Western energy markets.

Cantwell sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee which has oversight over FERC. Cantwell introduced legislation after the 2001 energy crisis to ensure transparency in energy markets and is the author of the ENRON Act introduced in 2003 which would ban energy market manipulation by companies like Enron.

Text of the letter:

June 7, 2004

Attorney General John Ashcroft Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest Washington D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Ashcroft,

I write regarding the Department of Justice's ongoing investigation of Enron Corporation. As you know, CBS News last week released audiotapes in which Enron traders acknowledged "stealing" from Western consumers, in the midst of the energy crisis of 2000-2001. That crisis continues to take a toll on the economy and consumers of my region, where retail electricity rates have already risen as much as 60 percent in some areas. But more troubling still is the fact that Enron is currently suing a number of utilities throughout the West, in an attempt to collect profits from energy contracts entered into in the midst of the crisis—even though we now know that, at the time, Enron and its employees were purposely scheming to drive up prices and gouge Western ratepayers.

It has come to my attention that the Enron audiotapes released thus far represent just a portion of those obtained by the Department of Justice as part of its ongoing investigation. These audiotapes provide important evidence detailing the scope of the company's manipulative tactics, as well as the intent of its employees. As such, they may be of substantial use in ongoing proceedings to determine whether Enron should still be allowed to collect profits on contracts resulting from the company's market manipulation schemes. In my view, such a result would amount to allowing Enron to once again pick the pockets of the same consumers already paying the substantial costs of the Western electricity crisis—even as the company and its employees have been subject to bankruptcy and criminal indictment for these activities.

Given these circumstances, I request that you make publicly available the remaining Enron audiotapes, as well as any additional transcripts of these tapes compiled in the course of your investigation. I believe that release of this information could be coordinated in such a manner as to ensure it would in no way interfere with the criminal prosecutions being pursued by DOJ's Enron Task Force.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, which is of such importance to my constituents. I look forward to your timely response.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell United States Senator