PUD gets boost in fight against Enron (Public Utility Districts,Wa.)

[Judi Lynn]

Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2005

PUD gets boost in fight against Enron
A measure by Sen. Maria Cantwell could help the utility avoid paying $122 million.

By Lukas Velush
Herald Writer

A provision that would make it harder for Enron Corp. to get $122 million from the Snohomish County PUD survived in a U.S. Senate energy bill that was adopted on Tuesday.

Now, the PUD will be sitting a bit prettier in its long-running fight with Enron if Sen. Maria Cantwell's provision sticks when the Senate bill is reconciled with a sister bill in the House of Representatives.

Cantwell's measure would not allow Enron's bankruptcy lawyers to come after the PUD for $122 million for canceling a 2001 electricity contract. But the PUD first must win in a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission court before it can get out of paying Enron. That legal battle is expected in September.

Enron claims the PUD owes it $117 million - now more than $122 million with interest - for canceling the contract to buy electricity during the 2000-01 West Coast energy crisis.

Charging that Enron illegally contributed to the record electricity price run-ups during the crisis, the PUD canceled its contract right before the energy broker filed for bankruptcy in 2002.
(snip/...)

http://heraldnet.com/stories/05/06/29/100loc_enron001.cfm

[acmavm]

1. Why the fu** should Enron be able to sue ANYBODY in order to get

payment for cancelled contracts??????

Believe me, the question is rhetorical. I understand what the premise and justification (?) is, but I remember being told that you can't recover money on a contract if that contract was even in part part of a criminal act. And everything Enron did during that time was based on fraud and a conspiracy in one form or another to commit fraud.

[Robbien]

2. That little PUD worked hard

to get the Enron tapes exposed and Enron cost PUD's consumers so much money and grief but Congress is poised to punish the PUD. WTF?