Steve,

Here is a summary and copy of the Congressman Barton's Electricity Emergency 
Relief bill per your request.


The Republicans on the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, led by 
Congressman Barton, have drafted legislation containing short term, emergency 
measures to alleviate the crises in the Western States comprising the Western 
Systems Coordinating Council.  Such measures include a mandatory connection 
policy for distributed generation, mobilizing the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency (FEMA) and compelling the formation of a Western region 
RTO. 
 
Barton plans introduce the bill at the end of April.  The bill is intended as 
a political response to Democrats and the State of California.  Little in the 
bill could be implemented by this summer and few of the provisions would have 
any beneficial impact on supply or demand.  Thus, there is an open question 
within the White House whether pursuit of the Barton bill is the correct 
political tactic.  The belief among the industry is that it is going nowhere 
and it has already served its limited purpose of responding to Democratic 
demands for action.  Although a final decision on its inclusion has not been 
made, Enron has been initially successful in including its demand buy down 
proposal in the Barton bill.



 - Electricity Emergency Relief Act.PDF
 - section by section introduced.doc



Carin Nersesian
Legislative Coordinator
Enron Corp.
1775 Eye St. NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC   20006
202-466-9144 (ph.)
202-828-3372 (fax)