Houston

By September 1997, Philadelphia Electric Co. had outflanked key opponents and filed a proposed partial settlement with the Penn. PUC to allow the company to recover costs that might become stranded under a new law (enacted a year before) that had brought a measure of competition to the state’s electric utility industry. Then Enron went to work.

In the aftermath of 2000-2001 energy crisis, Congress provided federal regulators more authority to crack down on fraud. To do so, FERC must show that the actor possessed the requisite state of mind and establish a connection between the alleged manipulative action and an interstate transportation or sale for resale of natural gas or electricity.