Frontlines

An Invitation From Ken Lay

 

Enron holds court on electric restructuring, exposing deep industry divisions and the polarization of views.

It was held in early October, an unusual, invitation-only, private meeting dubbed , which brought together some of the most notable minds in the energy industry. The idea was to invite some of the top industry thinkers to the same table to sort out electric competition's troubles. The result was to expose the deep, persistent divisions and disillusion with electric competition's progress.

Even with academics from Harvard's Electricity Group, all four FERC commissioners, representatives from state legislatures and PUCs, former DOE officials, congressmen, top executives representing utilities and associations, and, of course, yours truly, no clear consensus could be reached when discussing details. Of course, many of the disagreements, or agreements, could be understood in terms of the long held political and business agendas that were represented by the people attending.

For instance, why was Enron intent on quizzing us on what sort of policy initiatives could be accomplished in 12 to 16 months under certain energy pricing and political scenarios? Enron's agenda seemed clear. Enron's CEO, Ken Lay, since reassuming the helm of the company, has just recently redirected the company's focus back to energy trading. Lay, like many of his energy-marketing peers, wants to be able justify to shareholders that he is embarking his company on a strategy that will continue to be profitable-pretty much a standard corporate concern.