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HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES




Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: TUE 06/05/01
Section: HOUSTON
Page: 8
Edition: 2 STAR

TEXAS GETS CAUGHT UP IN A POWER PLAY /Energy Alley to blame for California's woes? 

By ANN HODGES, Houston Chronicle TV Critic
Staff



Frontline joins hands with the New York Times tonight, to jump into what California Gov. Gray Davis has turned into a marathon news blast at Texas, and at Houston, over his state's energy woes. 

Frontline : Blackout, airing at 10 tonight, should have Davis and his bash-Texas troops giving each other high fives. 

In its opening minutes, Frontline 's narration sets a tone for Texas-bashing: 

"Investigators (otherwise unidentified) claim that a handful of energy companies siphoned billions from consumers while the lights (in California) were out. 

"If you want to understand the story of electric power in America today, you have to follow the electrons and follow the money. It's a story that starts here, in Houston, Texas." 

The blame game is in high gear, as Frontline 's dust-up hovers over Houston. 

Houston's Energy Alley, home of "electric cowboys" (Frontline 's words), is the focus of this "follow-the-money" trail. 

And Ken Lay, chairman of Enron, "the 800-pound gorilla" in the Alley, gets the major grilling in its high-powered interview hot seat, along with Enron CEO Jeff Skilling. 

Interviewees also include Vice President Dick Cheney, California and federal officials, other company executives, industry insiders and what Frontline calls "whistle-blowers." 

Politics and finger-pointing fuel charges and countercharges, with Frontline correspondent and New York Times contributor Lowell Bergman conducting the interviews, and an off-camera narration spinning the sound and fury. 

With blackouts expected to hit New York this summer, "the entire country will soon be short on power," Frontline asserts to set the stage. 

"The generators have made more money than God. I mean, they've made 7, 8, 900 percent profit," Davis charges. 

"Now that a fellow Texan sits in the White House," Frontline says, "the companies on Energy Alley are hoping things will only get better. . . . Lay is a personal friend and big backer of President Bush, and he and his executives have been the Bush family's most generous contributors. . . . " 

"There are a few of us that are still maybe idealistic enough to think that we can kind of support a candidate because we really believe in the individual," Lay counters. "We believe in their policies. We believe in the direction they are going to take the country." 

El Paso Corp., the largest natural gas company, gets its lumps, too, from California officials. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was ready to dismiss California's complaint of price manipulation at the state's borders, Frontline says, "until Frontline and the New York Times obtained sealed documents revealing discussions at El Paso's highest levels." 

"Those documents are irrelevant," El Paso spokeswoman Peggy Heeg says. 

Frontline passes its golden opportunity to lay out, clearly and concisely, both sides - what critics say are the self-inflicted origins of California's energy crisis, and California's charges of price-gouging and pleas for price caps. Instead, that information comes piecemeal, over the course of contentious and often-confusing exchanges. 

To avoid retreat on deregulation, now in progress in 24 states, companies have begun to raise the possibility of settlement with California, Frontline reports. In Lay's opinion, "It's still going to take a comprehensive settlement of the whole issue, all the issues" - including money. 

Give Frontline full credit for stepping in where no other TV news outlet has dared to tread in such depth. Something is surely better than nothing. 

But this Frontline /New York Times team coverage effort does not cool the blame game. It sheds more heat than light. 

Frontline : Blackout, 10 tonight, 9 p.m. June 12 on Channel 8. Grade: B. 

Copyright notice: %3B All materials in this archive are copyrighted by Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspapers Partnership, L.P., or its news and feature syndicates and wire services. No materials may be directly or indirectly published, posted to Internet and intranet distribution channels, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed in any medium. Neither these materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use. 

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