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	From:  "Pergher, Gunther" <Gunther.Pergher@dowjones.com>                      
     10/27/2000 10:27 AM
	

To: undisclosed-recipients:;
cc:  
Subject: DJ House Votes, But FERC Unswayed On Calif Pwr Probe Release


17:20 GMT 27 October 2000 DJ House Votes, But FERC Unswayed On Calif Pwr
Probe Release
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Friday
it won't be swayed by a House vote urging immediate release of the results
of a staff probe into recent problems in California's power market.
FERC announced last week that it had received the results of an eagerly
anticipated staff investigation of market conditions that sent power costs
in California soaring over the summer.
The agency scheduled an extraordinary meeting for Nov. 1, at which it plans
to vote on proposed remedies based on the report's findings, but declined to
make public the staff's report before then.
"We plan to release the report on the first of November. The date hasn't
changed," said FERC spokesman Hedley Burrell.
The unprecedented high power prices in California this year have generated a
fierce political backlash in the state, as retail consumers in San Diego
were exposed to market-based prices this summer two to three times higher
than what they paid the previous year.
At the same time, utility companies outside of San Diego lost hundreds of
millions buying high-cost power at wholesale and selling it at retail at a
loss under a state-mandated retail rate freeze.
The decision to keep the staff report under wraps until Wednesday was
objected to by FERC Commissioner Curtis Hebert, the lone Republican among
the four sitting commissioners at FERC.
"The people of California should have as much time as possible to digest our
staff's findings and consider the options presented," Hebert said. "It can
only help heal the raw emotions rampant in the state of California."
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., whose district is in the San Diego region
where retail consumers were hit by the high-flying wholesale prices this
summer, sponsored the non-binding resolution the House approved Friday
urging immediate release of the report.
Bilbray is locked in a tight re-election campaign against Susan Davis, a
Democratic state assemblywoman, who was a sponsor of the legislation that
created the state's retail power restructuring initiative blamed for
creating the crisis.
The power price crunch has factored prominently in the race, in which
Bilbray has run advertisements likening Davis to a Dr. Frankenstein whose
electricity deregulation monster has run amok.
The House debated Bilbray's resolution late Thursday, but the lawmaker was
unable to attend due to a death in the family. Similarly, Bilbray was
unavailable for the House session Friday when the measure was passed in an
unrecorded voice vote, nor was he available to comment Friday,
Another San Diego-area lawmaker, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., in a telephone
interview Friday, dismissed the Bilbray resolution as "a meaningless thing."

The non-binding resolution "doesn't do much," Filner said, arguing the House
instead should take up his legislation directing FERC to roll back power
prices in the state and direct power sellers to provide retroactive refunds
to consumers.
Bilbray's resolution is "a politically generated thing to assure he is
covered for his re-election," Filner said. "His party will not let him do
something significant."
-By Bryan Lee, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-6647, bryan.lee@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 27-10-00
1720GMT Copyright (c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company Inc


G_nther A. Pergher
Senior Analyst
Dow Jones & Company Inc.
Tel.  609.520.7067
Fax. 609.452.3531

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