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Cal
State Fullerton economics professor Robert Michaels has worked
as a consultant to Enron. He's convinced that Enron's troubles
will not raise our utility rates here in California or cause
any more rolling blackouts.
Enron is a power broker. In other words it brought buyers
and sellers of energy together. It traded energy and didn't
own any power plants in California. Michaels says its demise
just means more business for their competition, like Dynegy
and Duke Energy. However, in talking to UC Irvine Professor
Peter Navarro his opinion is we Californians are in for some
dark times.
Navarro says that the demise of Enron will filter down to
consumers in higher prices for electricity and natural gas.
Not only that, Navarro believes the energy crisis we
experienced last year had nothing to do with a shortage of
power.
But Professor Michaels says last year was a year when
everything that could go wrong did.
The fact is no smoking gun has been found to prove our
energy crisis was phantom and Enron was involved. Some of
those in California still buying power from Enron have done
very well with the troubled company.
One of Enron's biggest customers in the State of California
and they spend tens of millions of dollars.
And so last spring when Enron tried to break its contract
with the University system, it fought to keep it because the
system was saving so much money and now have a two year
extension.
Finding out exactly what Enron's role was in our power
crisis last year won't be easy and it will take time. Tuesday
night we'll show you how to protect your retirement accounts,
chances are you were invested in Enron and didn't know it.
Last Updated: Feb 4,
2002
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