Bingaman Statement on Enron Documents on Price Manipulation in Western Electricity Markets

May 7, 2002
12:00 AM
“Yesterday, FERC released important information on price manipulation in Western electricity markets by Enron Corporation. Those documents, provided by the new management at Enron, are part of the FERC investigation that resulted from the Energy Committee’s hearing on Jan. 29. That hearing focused on the effect of Enron’s collapse on consumers and energy markets. At that time, FERC Chairman Pat Wood agreed to begin the investigation at the request of Senators Feinstein, Wyden and Cantwell. “As we digest this information, I will be consulting with my colleagues on appropriate next steps that Congress and this Committee should take to ensure that price manipulation and lack of transparency in energy markets are exposed and remedied. We will not interfere with FERC’s ongoing investigation, but we will ensure that, as we move forward into conference on the broader energy bill, we remain alert to problems that need to be addressed so that consumers are served by well functioning energy markets.” # # #