January 23, 2002 
Dow Jones Newswires
Calif Attorney Genl Says Likely To File More Energy Suits
Dow Jones Newswires

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)--California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Wednesday
he is likely to file more unfair business practice lawsuits against energy
suppliers he thinks overcharged for electricity.

But Lockyer, in a telephone interview, said after a yearlong investigation
he has found no criminal wrongdoing by any energy suppliers. He said he has
discovered possible civil violations of California consumer laws prohibiting
overcharging - violations that carry no jail or prison time.

Lockyer's disclosure came a week after the state's top law enforcement
official sued Pacific Gas and Electric Corp., the parent to Pacific Gas and
Electric Co., for allegedly siphoning billions from its underling and
forcing it to seek federal bankruptcy protection.

The PG&E suit is "the first of many I would expect in the energy area to
overcome overcharges," Lockyer told The Associated Press.

"We've devoted a huge amount of investigative and lawyering time to get back
the money...generators extracted from Californians," he added.

Lockyer declined to name other companies that he would sue, but his office
has subpoenaed records from Dynegy, Enron Corp., Mirant Corp. and Reliant
Energy - all of which have denied wrongdoing. In the interview, the attorney
general did mention Enron by name, saying "we're still looking at the energy
overcharges," and he accused Enron of withholding documents.

Enron, a major energy trading concern, has filed for bankruptcy protection
following the disclosure that it misstated its earnings by hundreds of
millions of dollars.

PG&E, the only supplier Lockyer has sued, blamed its woes on a 1996
California law that left it unable to collect the full price of electricity
from its customers.

Lockyer's disclosure that he hasn't discovered criminal conduct, including
no evidence of a conspiracy to fix prices, comes nearly a year after he said
he wanted to jail Kenneth Lay, Enron's chairman. Lockyer told the Wall
Street Journal in May that, "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8
by 10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi my name is
Spike, honey."'

On Wednesday, Lockyer declared the statement "rhetorical excess," adding,
"So far...we haven't found criminal behavior associated with pricing
policies."

Still, the city of San Francisco has accused 13 energy suppliers of
manipulating prices in a suit that is pending in San Diego County Superior
Court.

That suit alleges the suppliers manipulated supplies to keep prices high.
San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Mark Slavin said the city doesn't have
proof of those allegations, but would uncover them as the lawsuit proceeds
in a process known as discovery.

"We think that the discovery process will uncover anticompetitive behavior,"
Slavin said.

The energy suppliers have denied the allegations.

A California legislative committee also investigating a spike in wholesale
energy costs has served additional subpoenas on Enron officials.

The Senate Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation in the
Wholesale Energy Market summoned Enron officials to appear for depositions
regarding destruction of documents. Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana, and the
committee's chairman, said he's concerned that documents destroyed by
Enron's auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, were covered by a legislative subpoena
issued in June.

Dunn's committee on Wednesday also agreed to subpoena Andersen regarding the
Enron records.


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