Public bid for PGE falls apart (yet more bad news from Enronia)

[0rganism]

Public bid for PGE falls apart
Friday, July 22, 2005
GAIL KINSEY HILL

The long-controversial prospect of a public takeover of Oregon's largest utility came to a sudden standstill Thursday after Enron called off negotiations with the city of Portland over the purchase of Portland General Electric.

The same day, Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced the veto of a bill that would have created a public corporation to buy PGE. And on Wednesday, the governor had vetoed another bill dealing with a public acquisition of PGE.

The rapid-fire sequence of events stymies a multi-front, multiyear drive to wrest PGE from Enron and create a consumer-owned utility. The various efforts stirred fierce debate throughout the utility's six-county service territory and inside the corridors of state government. They also deepened the ideological gulf between those who support government ownership and those who favor private enterprise.

Houston-based Enron, which emerged from bankruptcy late last year, is now fixed on a private-sector route. The company intends to carry out a plan that transfers ownership to Enron creditors through a distribution of PGE stock. Shares would be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

The decision to focus exclusively on the stock-distribution plan puts PGE's post-Enron future in the hands of the Oregon Public Utility Commission for the fourth time in six years. The PUC regulates investor-owned utilities but not consumer-owned ones. The stock-distribution plan would require the approval of the PUC and several federal agencies....

more at http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1122026318186880.xml&coll=7

FUCK OPUC, THEY'RE THE ONES WHO LET ENRON ROB US IN THE FIRST PLACE

[stevedeshazer]

1. Did you see the picture with this front-page article?

Smear journalism.

And their awful website won't show it.

The Oregonian editorial staff have really outdone themselves here.

Their hatred of public power is naked today, just behind their hatred of public employees.

They LOVE PGE and always have.

From their editorial page: <snip>

"Within a year, if all goes as expected, PGE will once again be the same kind of stand-alone, publicly traded, Portland-headquartered company that served much of Western Oregon for the past century. That is good news, not bad.

One of the state's largest private companies will remain just that. The leadership at PGE, which by and large has done a good job through a terribly turbulent time, will remain at the helm. The company's employees will have more security and stability than they have known in recent years.

To the bitter end Thursday, when Mayor Tom Potter and Commissioner Erik Sten accused Enron officials of acting in bad faith in their negotiations, Portland's leaders attacked the idea of a privately owned and operated PGE. A careful reading of the back-and-forth letters the city released Thursday doesn't settle the bad-faith allegations. The letters do show that Enron was worried about city opponents forcing an election and pushing any city purchase far beyond the timetable it had laid out."

http://www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1122026339186880.xml&coll=7

ZERO mention of the millions of Oregon ratepayer dollars paid under the guise of taxes that STILL find their way to the pockets of Texas crooks and liars.