US Court Denies Enron, MAPP Utils Appeals Against FERC 

Jun. 20, 2001 
Dow Jones Energy Service 
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 

CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- A United States Appeals Court has rejected bids from 
several central U.S. utilities and power marketer Enron Corp. (ENE) to change 
a series of refunds previously ordered by the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission. FERC ordered in 1999 that several transmission-owning utilities 
in the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool transmission grid region had to refund 
some extra transmission fees that were collected between spring 1997 and 
spring 1999. In total, MAPP calculates those refunds at about $26 million. 

Many MAPP companies, including Alliant Energy Corp. (LNT) and Nebraska Public 
Power District, argued to the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington 
D.C. that FERC's order violated rules against retroactive rulemaking. Enron, 
which benefited from the refunds, argued in a separate appeal that it should 
be paid additional compensation. 

In an opinion filed Tuesday by Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, FERC's 
original rulings were backed and both appeals were rejected. 

"We were disappointed by the decision," said Dan Presser, spokesman for 
Alliant, which refunded $3.3 million in 1999. "Our argument was that we 
should have had our refund refunded. We're still reviewing what our next step 
is."