State agency accused of helping Enron screw citizens


George Knapp, Investigative Reporter

Nevada Power Lawsuit Controversy


(Mar. 17) -- Nevada Power Company filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday
alleging that the Colorado River Commission, which is a Nevada state agency,
conspired with the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is also a public
entity, along with the Enron Corporation, to manipulate the energy market. The
lawsuit seeks tens of millions of dollars in compensation and is based, in
large part, on once-secret audiotapes whose existence was first reported by the
Eyewitness News I-Team.

We've been reporting for two weeks now that Nevada Power suspected the river
commission acted in a conspiracy with Enron and with the SNWA to gut the power
company, and its customers, for millions of dollars. The federal lawsuit filed
takes the wraps off of Nevada Power's suspicions and lays out the case in great
detail. So, do the audiotapes provide hints of a possible dark conspiracy?
Listen for yourself.

George Caan, Director of the Colorado River Commission, said, "I only learned
of the content of the tapes a few weeks ago."

So George Caan of the CRC didn't know what was on his agency's trader tapes,
despite a two-year-old federal investigation into CRC trades with Enron? Caan
still didn't want the tapes made public.

CRC trader; "I'm making money and I'm hurting them (Nevada Power). What more
could I ask for?"

On the tapes, traders from CRC often bragged of quote: "screwing Nevada Power"
and of "making big profits", something a state agency isn't supposed to do.

Bill Miller, CRC trader; "I think we made 150,000 bucks yesterday. Let's see
what happens when it really gets ugly during the summer months."

Idaho Power trader; "Is that a number SNWA knows yet?"

Bill Miller; "Yeah, they were fully informed as to what happened yesterday
because we really screwed with Nevada's system."

Chief trader Bill Miller is named in Nevada Power's federal lawsuit. Throughout
the tapes he jokes about driving Nevada Power into bankruptcy by creating phony
supply imbalances. Nevada Power first complained to the CRC in May 2000 that
something was wrong. George Caan says he put a stop to it.

George Caan, CRC executive director; "When I was informed in May, the practice
was immediately stopped."

But the trader tapes show the skullduggery continued in other forms, and that
Caan's order to stop was considered a wink and a nod.

Bill Miller; "He (George) understands exactly what was going on. He bought into
it. But he told Nevada Power a different story. George was b--- s----ing. He
was 100% behind everything I did."

The profits supposedly went to the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The tapes
suggest SNWA knew how the money was earned, including one payment of 800-grand
from Nevada Power to SNWA.

John Evans, SNWA; "That's our over scheduling?"

Bill Miller, CRC trader; "That's right."

John Evans, SNWA; "That's, uh, pretty nice. That's a pretty good scheme."

Pat Shalmy, President of Nevada Power, said, "Money seems to have been made by
Enron, CRC, and Southern Nevada Water Authority at the expense of this
company."

Nevada Power's Pat Shalmy suspects that his company's losses were engineered to
help the water authority take over the power company, something water boss Pat
Mulroy dismisses as quote; "bunk" -- but the tapes imply the water authority
did want power.

Bill Miller, CRC trader; "You've got some people (at SNWA) that want more
power, and not the electrical kind."

Unidentified trader; "They want more political power, right?

Bill Miller, CRC trader; "And this is their way of doing it."

In earlier statements, both the CRC and the water authority vigorously denied
that any such conspiracy existed, or that any wrongdoing took place. Wednesday,
in response to the lawsuit, a water authority spokesman told the I-Team quote:
"It's a free country. Anyone can sue anyone else for anything. It doesn't prove
anything."

Paula Francis asked, "Does Nevada Power say how high up they think this goes in
both of those agencies?"

George Knapp answered, "The lawsuit lists several employees by name, including
George Caan, the CRC's director, but the suit also lists up to 20 John Doe's.
The power company thinks that people high up in both agencies knew about it.
Company executives said on Face to Face with Jon Ralston Wednesday morning that
they have no proof at this time that it reaches to CRC chairman Richard Bunker
or to water czar Pat Mulroy."

http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story....Type=Printable

end

I want to see John Ashcroft nail these guys.

"As physicists now know, there is some nonzero probability that any object will,
through quantum effects, tunnel from the workbench in your shop to Floyds Knobs,
Indiana (unless your shop is already in Indiana, in which case the object will
tunnel to Trotters, North Dakota).
The smaller mass of the object, the higher the probability.
Therefore, disassembled parts, particularly small ones,
of machines disappear much faster than assembled machines."
Greg Dermer: rec.crafts.metalworking