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LAY URGES LEGISLATORS TO REJECT MONOPOLY
DEMANDS TO WITHHOLD CUSTOMER CHOICE BENEFITS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, August 13, 1997
HOUSTON - Enron Corp. Chairman and CEO, Kenneth L. Lay, urged state legislators today to say, "Yes!" to electricity customer choice now; and "No!" to electric monopolies seeking accommodations that block the benefits of competition. The comments came during a speech titled "Electricity Restructuring: Competition... Not Accommodation!". The attached copy of the speech is also available at http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/releases/1997/alec.html.
"Local monopolies, whether in telecom or retail electric markets, are inventing endless new ways to keep their markets closed," Lay said in addressing more than 600 state legislators at the 24th Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in New Orleans.
"The obstructions cost consumers by not allowing the promise of competition to be effectively delivered - they are calculated machinations of cozy monopolists; and state policy makers must start to say, 'No!' - now."
Lay compared the need to fully open the electricity market to competition to the challenge of jumping all the way across a canyon.
"Unfortunately, we have policy makers who have accepted the notion of a consensus driven process and are willing to let monopolists set the rules so that new market entrants are able to jump only halfway across the canyon. Grave injuries will be visited upon competition in electric markets if policy makers persist in 'halfway' reform," Lay said.
He commended states that have refused to accommodate monopoly obstructions.
"In Maine, you said 'yes' to competition for competitive services like metering and billing, ... you said 'yes' to tough, but fair, restrictions on competitive affiliates of monopolies. In Nevada, you said 'yes' to keeping the provider of monopoly electric services out of the business of providing competitive electric services, except through a level-playing-field affiliate," said Lay.
Lay pledged ... "that Enron intends to be the peoples' cops - to blow the whistle on monopolies and to challenge legislators and regulators to get the job done, done right, and done now."
In November 1996, ALEC members passed pro-competition model legislation and in March 1997 passed a model resolution supporting date-certain federal legislation for the year 2000.
Enron Corp., one of the world's largest integrated natural gas and electricity companies with approximately $17 billion in assets, operates one of the largest natural gas transmission systems in the world; is the largest purchaser and marketer of natural gas and the largest non-regulated marketer of electricity in North America; is a leading participant in liberalized energy markets in the United Kingdom and the Nordic Countries; markets natural gas liquids worldwide; manages the largest portfolio of fixed-price natural gas risk management contracts in the world; is among the leading entities arranging new capital to the energy industry; owns a majority interest in Enron Oil & Gas Company, one of the largest independent (non-integrated) exploration and production companies in the United States; owns a majority interest in Enron Global Power & Pipelines L.L.C., which is owner and manager of operating power plants and natural gas pipelines around the world; is one of the largest independent developers and producers of electricity in the world; and is a major supplier of solar and wind renewable energy worldwide. Enron's Internet address is www.enron.com and its common stock is traded under the ticker symbol, "ENE."
For additional information please contact:
Mark Palmer
(713) 853-4738
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