This was more than mere incompetence

Regarding The Herald’s Jan 11 editorial on the Enron mess (“Enron’s energy lessons”): You seem to take the same position that California’s governor has. Namely, that the nasty old energy companies were totally at fault for power shortages and skyrocketing prices. Absolutely no mention of power plant construction and the role of environmental regulations in making it extremely expensive if not impossible to build them. You mention the huge interest of the public in knowing that their power is coming from environmentally pure sources and even mention the $4 surcharge for using power generated from wind generators. I wonder why you didn’t mention how many people were taking advantage of this offer.

My personal hope is that some Enron executives and perhaps some people from their accounting firm do a little jail time. From the information released so far it would appear that their transgressions went far beyond simple incompetence. With Stonewall Janet gone from the Justice Department, we at least have a chance at getting to the truth. I noticed on the Internet recently that the attorney general has removed himself from the investigation because he received campaign contributions from Enron. That’s certainly a novelty after watching Janet Reno’s conduct.

Snohomish

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