Energy Corps With Record of Cheating Consumers Form New Lobbying Group

[Robbien]

WASHINGTON, -- March 25 -- A lobbying group formed by six energy companies is lobbying the federal government in an effort to convince lawmakers and regulators that deregulation is good for consumers, despite the fact that these companies have paid nearly $1 billion over the past three years to settle allegations of Enron-style market manipulation for acts they were able to more easily commit because of deregulation. One company is under criminal indictment for its role in intentionally shutting down power plants in California – also an act it was able to commit more easily because of deregulation.

With the energy bill due to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 5, this group is likely working behind the scenes to convince Congress that electricity deregulation is a benefit for the public. Instead, recent history proves just the opposite: Deregulation has led to price-gouging of consumers and California’s brush with bankruptcy, while the energy marketers have been raking in higher profits.

“It is disingenuous for this lobby group to push deregulation policies that they claim are good for consumers when history shows that their own companies used these very policies to profit from the biggest consumer rip-off in history,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. “The last people Congress should listen to for advice on energy policy are the companies that have succeeded in gouging ratepayers in some of the biggest corporate scandals we’ve seen in the past century.”

Among other provisions in the energy bill that the group is likely targeting is the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), a consumer protection law that limits the investment of utility profits in unrelated business ventures and prohibits expansion-minded corporations from siphoning off profits for risky investment schemes that do nothing to improve service reliability or keep electricity rates low. PUHCA is the key reason America has such stable and reliable utility companies.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0325-02.htm