MARYSVILLE — Both candidates for state attorney general agree on one thing – Enron Corp. energy traders really stuck it to Snohomish County’s electricity customers.
And more importantly, they both want to help Snohomish County PUD do something about it.
“Clear evidence was brought to light by the Snohomish County PUD that Enron engaged in practices aimed at manipulating the energy market,” Republican Rob McKenna said Friday, Oct. 1 during a breakfast debate before the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce at the Tulalip Casino.
He later promised “to support any public utility that was victimized by the likes of Enron.”
Democrat Deborah Senn also said she planned to “aggressively pursue the Enron case” if she is elected to replace three-term Attorney General Christine Gregoire, who is running for governor.
The PUD has sued Enron, saying the PUD and other utilities shouldn’t be required to pay the company about $800 million because Enron had clearly manipulated the price of energy. The PUD even obtained transcripts of recordings in which traders can be heard joking about bilking customers.
Asked why Gregoire hasn’t provided more help to the PUD in the high-profile legal case, Senn said she didn’t know. “It’s very important to stand up for the energy and utility consumers, because they have gotten a rotten deal,” she said.
McKenna noted that PUD officials he has talked to are dismayed there hasn’t been more state help. “They don’t understand it, and neither do I,” he said.
Consumer protection is an important issue, said McKenna, who has been on the Metro King County Council for the past eight years. He noted that only six of the attorney general office’s 500 lawyers are assigned to the issue, and he promised to devote more resources to it.
Senn, a two-term state insurance commissioner, also promised to protect consumers, saying that ensuring prescription drugs are affordable for seniors and attacking identification theft are other important issues.
Where the two candidates disagree is on changes in the health care and legal systems to lower the amounts won by people in malpractice and other cases or to lessen what insurance providers must pay for.
Mike Benbow writes for The Herald in Everett.
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