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ENRON'S SKILLING URGES CONGRESS TO ACT THIS YEAR ON CHOICE AND COMPETITION IN ELECTRIC INDUSTRY How Can We Tell Voters That the Time is Not Right
For Them to Have Choices, He Asks?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, May 9, 1997
DALLAS -- Opening the U.S. electric power system to consumer choice and competition would be the equivalent of an $800 tax refund for every family in the country, Enron President and Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey K. Skilling told a congressional field hearing today.
"How can we tell voters that the time is not right for them to have choices?" Skilling asked during his testimony before the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee. "How can we justify protecting monopolies when we know there is a better way?"
Skilling testified that federal legislation with a "date certain" is essential to assure every consumer's individual right to choose an electric power supplier.
"The large investor-owned utilities are hoping you will postpone setting a deadline...Until you set a deadline, problems are all you will hear about," said Skilling. "A deadline forces them to stop listing problems and start creating solutions."
Skilling also noted that the industry's strategy of delay is operating at the state as well as federal level. He pointed out that in the current Texas negotiation, the offer to permit recovery of 100 percent of their stranded costs didn't seem to be enough, noting that the utilities countered with a start date as late as 2004.
"They want not only full cost recovery for utilities, but excess recovery while delaying competition into the next millennium," said Skilling . "The monopolies' delay game is holding back the creative potential of a vast American industry... You have the ability, this year, to unleash a remarkable revolution in the way Americans pay for and receive the power that lights their homes and businesses."
The full text of Skilling's testimony follows.
Enron Corp., one of the world's largest integrated natural gas and electricity companies with approximately $16 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 is traded under the ticker symbol, "ENE."
For additional information please contact:
Gary Foster
(713) 853-4527
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