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From:  djcustomclips@djinteractive.com@ENRON 
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Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 4:31 AM
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Subject: Cable Open Access: Ex-Gore Aide Simon Will Lobby for Enron.(Greg 
Simon, hired by Enron    Corp ...

 
Ex-Gore Aide Simon Will Lobby for Enron.(Greg Simon, hired by Enron Corp. to 
be lobbyist)(Brief Article) 
TED HEARN 
  
07/02/2001 
Multichannel News 
10 
Copyright 2001 Gale Group Inc. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT 2001 Cahners 
Publishing Company 
WASHINGTON -- Greg Simon, who spearheaded the cable open-access effort for 
America Online Inc. after leaving the Clinton White House, has signed up to 
lobby for Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy trading company with close 
political ties to the Bush Administration. 
Simon -- a top media and telecommunications adviser to former Vice President 
Al Gore and founder of his own lobbying firm, called Simon Strategies -- 
filed a lobbying-registration form with the clerk of the House of 
Representatives on June 18. He also registered Simon Strategies assistants 
Kristan Van Hook and Ann Morton as Enron lobbyists. 
On the form, Simon said he planned to lobby the White House, Congress, the 
Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission "in furtherance 
of national policies that support competitive access by content providers to 
broadband communications networks." 
Simon declined to discuss his Enron duties, except to say  he was lobbing for 
the company directly, indicating that Enron was not joining Simon's OpenNet 
coalition -- the group once funded by AOL to pressure the FCC and Congress to 
impose open Internet access mandates on the cable industry. 
"I am not registered to do [Enron's] press for them," Simon said in a phone 
interview. "You have to talk to them about what they want to say to the 
press. That's not what they want me to do unless they give me the go-ahead to 
do that." 
Enron is a $100 billion energy company with a broadband-services division. 
The company signed a video-on-demand deal with Blockbuster Inc., which 
collapsed in March with each side blaming the other for the venture's 
failure. 
Enron chairman Kenneth Lay is a longtime informal adviser to President Bush 
on energy issues. He was one of 212 individuals who each raised $100,000 for 
the Bush campaign, while Enron provided corporate jets for Bush campaign 
officials, according to U.S. News and World Report. 
Wendy L. Gramm, wife of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), is an Enron board 
director, according to Enron's company Web site. 
U.S. News also reported that Enron employees gave $1.3 million to the GOP 
last year. It also stated that three Bush administration officials -- senior 
adviser Karl Rove, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, and 
top economic policy adviser Lawrence Lindsey - each owned at least $50,000 in 
Enron stock, though Rove has moved to sell the shares. 
Sources said Simon is planning to revive the open-access issue on behalf of 
Enron and The Walt Disney Co. and perhaps expand the effort to include 
nondiscrimination by cable operators against unaffiliated 
interactive-television providers. Enron did not return phone calls seeking 
comment. 
A Disney official has repeatedly said that the company has made no decision 
about joining any open-access or ITV coalition. 
A source who recently met with Simon said the lobbyist indicated his Enron 
job would deal with open access to cable facilities. 
"What he said suggested to me that he has had conversations with [Enron and 
Disney], and it does seem that those companies have something in common on 
open access," the sources said. 
Another source said Enron, which owns an 18,000-mile global fiber-optic 
network, was looking to deliver content from that plant to end users over the 
last mile controlled by cable and phone companies. 
"Their interest is, essentially, access to the local loop," the source said. 
Cable industry sources said they were puzzled by Simon's latest move and 
didn't have a clear sense of where he would begin to apply pressure.
One cable industry wag quipped, "Enron is a major content provider of oil, 
gas and electricity." 
All Simon would say is that he is "representing Enron Broadband directly. 
Anything more, you have to talk to Enron about. I make it a habit not to put 
words in my client's mouth." 
Folder Name: Cable Open Access 
Relevance Score on Scale of 100: 93
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