SCOOP LINK Enron Traders Caught On TapeLOS ANGELES, June 1, 2004
See also... Part 2
Enron Tapes Anger Lawmakers
LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2004
CBS - When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices,
Enron energy traders celebrated, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports.
"Burn, baby, burn. That's a beautiful thing," a trader sang about the massive fire.
Four years after California's disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard – on
audiotapes obtained by CBS News – gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash in on, the Western
power crisis.
"He just fucks California," says one Enron employee. "He steals money from California to the tune of about a million."
"Will you rephrase that?" asks a second employee.
"OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day," replies the first.
The tapes, from Enron's West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with
power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.
"If you took down the steamer, how long would it take to get it back up?" an Enron worker is heard saying.
"Oh, it's not something you want to just be turning on and off every hour. Let's put it that way," another says.
"Well, why don't you just go ahead and shut her down."
Officials with the Snohomish Public Utility District near Seattle received the tapes from the Justice Department.
"This is the evidence we've all been waiting for. This proves they manipulated the market," said Eric Christensen, a
spokesman for the utility.
That utility, like many others, is trying to get its money back from Enron.
"They're fucking taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you
guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"
"Yeah, grandma Millie, man"
"Yeah, now she wants her fucking money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her asshole for
fucking $250 a megawatt hour."
And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.
"Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," says one trader.
"Ok."
For full story see…
Part 1
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Part 2
Enron Tapes Anger Lawmakers
LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2004
[NOTE: Following in the footsteps of Prorev.com's Undernews we have restored the full flavor of the language from the CBS censored transcripts which make extensive use of dashes]