Pelosi: Enron Lied, Cheated, and Stole...

I've been singing the praises of Maria Cantwell, the junior Senator from the Upper Left, in the fight to bring Enron to heel. A major obstacle has been the reluctance of the Federal Enerergy Regulatory Commission to, well, regulate. I almost said 'curious reluctance,' but it's not curious at all when you consider these facts from a recent Joel Connelly column in the Seattle P.I.

Enron Chairman Ken Lay and wife, Linda, gave more than $1 million to the president's political coffers in years before the Houston-based energy trading company went bankrupt late in 2001.

The Lays are No. 10 on a recently compiled list of big-money Bush donors known as "Pioneers."

Lay was part of the Energy Department transition team. He met with Vice President Dick Cheney to make inputs on energy policy.

He commended the name of Patrick Wood III to the White House personnel office for appointment as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Now should-be Speaker - check that - will be Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken the floor to take Enron and the FERC to task.

"We knew all along that Enron and the energy companies were gaming the system. The now notorious tapes, which every member of this body has an obligation to observe, of Enron traders confirm what we knew all along – Enron and the other energy companies were laughing all the way to the bank us as they stole from families and businesses of California.

"Enron and its kind lied, cheated, and stole, and it is long past time for Enron to pay consumers and the states back...

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"Today, the House is unanimously agreeing that FERC release its evidence of corporate misconduct to the public. That's what the Rules Committee should have allowed us to do in a broader way last night, but they rejected it. I call on the Republicans to join us in ensuring that FERC live up to this bipartisan decision, and that it release this information."

It's important to remember that the Snohomish County, WA PUD, a smallish public utility serving a largely rural county, didn't get the infamous Enron tapes because they were going after the energy giant. That would take bigger guns than the PUD could ordinarily afford. They got them as a result of discovery in a suit Enron filed against them. That's right, despite Enron's trail of unethical and criminal conduct, they're still suing the customers they defrauded.

It's the kind of outrage that led Joel to write

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission needs resignations, reform and results in the form of refunds to West Coast ratepayers. The power rip-off cost the average household a lot more than those ballyhooed $300 tax refund checks the Bush administration sent us.

and it's the kind of battle in which west coast consumers need all the help we can get. With Maria Cantwell and Nancy Pelosi fighting side by side, we're getting some of the very best.