Enron CEO Pied in San Francisco!

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On Thursday, June 21, California residents outraged at the continued price-gouging by out-of-state energy corporations greeted Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling at the Commonwealth Club with signs of protests outside of the San Franciscos prestigious Commonwelath Club.

Inside the Commonwelath Club, Mr. Skilling was pied with a cream pie by the "Biotic Baking Brigade." Throughout his speech several individuals in the audience sat with pig masks labled with ENRON to signify the shameless greed that this multinational has exhibited.

The crowd confronted Skilling on his and Enron’s record of price gouging and bilking the public with high energy prices. Several times throughout Skilling’s speech individuals pointed out Enron's record of manipulation of Californias Energy Supply and Enron’s role in corrupting the political process with huge campaign contributions and reaping billions of dollars in profits. These protesters were ejected from the meeting. Signs were confiscated from some members of the seated audience as they were held up.

Texas-based Enron is George Bush's largest lifetime donor and the largest energy marketer in the world. It lobbied heavily in California and other states for deregulation. Enron continues to lobby against price caps and any legislation that would bring relief to consumers and threaten the energy cartel's control of the market.

While California residents pay the price for the deregulation fiasco and the ongoing market manipulation, Skilling himself is doing better than ever for those very same reasons. Skilling is one of the highest paid CEOs in the United States, with his 2000 compensation and stock options totaling $132 million. The company has seen its stock value skyrocket from $19 in 1998 to a high of $90 in 2000.

In a press release, Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange who attended the Commonwealth Club presentation stated: "Mr. Skilling and his company have received obscene profits in the past year and in the process inflicted tremendous harm on the people and economy of California. That’s why we'll be at the Commonwealth Club to accuse him of being the robber baron that he is."

Protesters asked that Enron and the other energy companies return the $9 billion they overcharged California consumers in the past year.

Todays S.F. Chronicle’s Business section lead story on Enron indicated Enron’s financial troubles and commented “ ...Enron has engaged in repeated battles with the state government of Maharashtra in India over a 2,184-megawatt power plant there. The Dahbol Power Co., which is 65 % controlled by Enron, stopped construction ..... claiming it is owed $48 million by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. The state has accused Enron of charging too much and not generating enough, and stopped buying power from the plant last month.”

Enron is allegedly known for strongarm bullying business tactics couched as "free market" enterprise. In 1997 Amnesty International issued a report based on the investigation on Enron’s operations in in India. Community members challenged Enron's project in Maharashtra on the grounds of its impact on economic and social rights. Activists were singled out in an organized effort to stop opposition to the project, which included curtailing the rights of freedom of association, expression, and assembly.

-- Pie in the Face (for@enron.greed), June 22, 2001

Answers

June 21, 2001

Energy Charges Singe Democrats

By Polly Forster

As the new chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) expected to grapple with the burgeoning energy crisis, but he probably never anticipated that he would face heat about his personal investments in oil and gas companies.

After months of scoring political points by charging that top Republicans are personally gaining from the profits of oil and gas companies that have been accused of gouging consumers, some Democrats now find themselves on the receiving end of similar allegations.

First the Republican National Committee slammed Bingaman for being one of the Senate's top recipients of campaign contributions from the energy industry.

Now Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) has pounced on the fact that financial disclosure forms released last week show that Bingaman had a slew of investments, ranging between $31,000 and $115,000, held jointly with his wife in energy-related companies last year.

"They're trying to make Republicans look bad, and yet they have dirty skirts themselves," Foley charged in an interview.

Bingaman has $15,000 to $50,000 invested in both Emerson and Enron, while last year he sold $1,000 to $15,000 worth of stock in Halliburton, the oil services company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney.

Foley is angry that the new chairman has proposed opening up 5.9 million acres for drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast. The Republican favors looking for an alternative, such as wind power.

He denounced Bingaman's proposal at a Ways and Means hearing last week, during which the committee heard testimony from House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.).

"You've accused President Bush of being in bed with oil [interests],"Foley recalled saying to Gephardt. "Now we find out that one of your own Members, who has just been made chairman of the [Energy] Committee, is an advocate of opening up Florida for drilling."

Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin vigorously denied GOPsuggestions that the new chairman has any conflict of interest. "He's not beholden to any interest," said McCartin, who noted that New Mexico is a big oil and gas-producing state so it's not surprising he receives contributions from those industries.

McCartin noted that Bingaman has co-sponsored a bill urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make sure that rates in the West are reasonable. She noted that such legislation was far from popular with the energy companies.

McCartin added that Bingaman's personal investments "pale in comparison to what other Members take and certainly what Bush and Cheney"made from the oil industry.

Nevertheless, Foley sees major inconsistencies. "The political attacks [on the GOP] sound good from poll-tested messages, so [the Democrats] run the gauntlet and claim that they're for the environment and for conservation," he said.

A survey compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics ranked Bingaman in sixth place in the Senate last year in terms of total contributions received from oil and gas companies.

Although anyone can hold stocks, "his leadership role makes the scrutiny of him even more intense," said CRP spokesman Steven Weiss. "He has the power to bring up a bill, to set the agenda - one which could impact the bottom line of the energy industries."

In a memo attacking Bingaman, RNC spokesman Rudy Fernandez asked, "Where does Senator Bingaman get his cash from? Solar power, wind power? No, from oil, gas, utilities, and pipeline and mining interests."

Fernandez said the RNC is trying to demonstrate that Democratic charges of impropriety are bogus. "It's important that the American public realize that Democrats also receive money from energy companies, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Bingaman is not the only Democrat to come under scrutiny in the past week. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has played a central role in trying to obtain energy price relief for her constituents, quickly divested $100,000 to $343,000 in energy shares she holds with her husband soon after her financial disclosures were released last week.

Boxer said she had given power of attorney to her financial adviser to make good investments and that she didn't realize she was invested in energy companies.

"I only saw it when I read the report," Boxer insisted. "She takes care of that, and I take care of business here."

However, when she realized where her money had been put, Boxer quickly called her adviser.

"They've been gouging my people, so I felt uncomfortable owning it all,"she said. "I ordered [my financial adviser] to divest the minute I saw it because I just didn't feel good."

Her joint shares included at least $30,000 to $100,000 in Halliburton stocks and investments in some of California's major energy producers.

The possibility of an ethical minefield is not lost on Fernandez. "There's something very hypocritical about demonizing a company at the same time as the bank account grows," the RNC official pointed out.

Boxer shrugged off such criticism, saying, "If you look at my record and that of Jeff Bingaman, you'll see that we've been working for the consumer in everything we've been doing."

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a leading Bush critic who has $3.8 million in energy holdings, stressed that the investment belongs to his wife, Teresa, heir to the Heinz fortune.

"I know nothing about it - conceivably my wife does,"said Kerry, who has threatened to filibuster Bush's plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil-and-gas exploration.

McCartin argued that a similar distinction applies to Bingaman. "They're separate things,"she said. "There's Jeff Bingaman the private man and Jeff Bingaman the Senator."

Boxer believes any conflict of interest can simply be evaluated by the amounts of money involved. "There's a difference between a few shares in a company and stock options and pensions, and getting bought out," she said. "We all have stocks."

Indeed, nearly a quarter of Senators have stock in various energy companies. Seven of the 22 Members on the Energy Committee have shares in oil and gas companies, including Minority Whip Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who has between $33,000 and $111,000 worth of shares (including a small investment in Parker Drilling).

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) has between $1.4 million and $2.8 million invested in energy interests. Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has part of his individual retirement account invested in energy, while Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has between $315,000 and $750,000 in energy stocks.

Sen. Phil Gramm's (R-Texas) wife, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairwoman Wendy Gramm, serves as a director at Enron and disclosed $250,000 to $500,000 in deferred compensation. Sen. Tom Harkin's (R-Iowa) wife consults for Conoco, a company in which she has between $400,000 and $950,000 in stock.

Boxer, however, said she won't be reinvesting in energy until the California energy crisis is over. "Now I feel better at night when I go to sleep."

http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/2001/06/news0621b.html

-- Cave Man (caves@are.us), June 22, 2001.


got any pics?

-- i wanna see this (that guy is @ major. league asshole), June 22, 2001.

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