ENRON: FALL OF THE LIBERAL MODEL
"Energy financialisation and international brokerage, that is built on
deregulated markets and the Internet, speculation, illegal practices, lies,
opaque accounting hidden by a series of subsidiaries and doubtful operations,
etc. etc. " - such are the terms used by the world press to describe the
activities of Enron, which field for bankruptcy on 2 December 2001 and is the
biggest such case in American history.
This Texan giant, nourished by
deregulation of the energy sector, was in a rather good state. It was one of the
major actors of the Californian crisis. It was a powerful and aggressive tool of
those, who used it to make us believe that electricity and gas are commodities
like any other. In 2000, its turnover was over 100 billion dollars. The appetite
of the world leader in energy brokerage grew staggeringly: after gas, it
swallowed up electricity, water, coal, aluminum, paper, wood, copper,
telecommunications and insurance companies, etc. It was supported by banks and
the authorities and went to Kuwait in 1993 in Bush Senior's luggage. He helped
it to get hold of contracts for rebuilding electric power stations that had been
destroyed during the Gulf War.
Fair's fair…. According to the Wall Street
Journal, Enron contributed 1.3 billion dollars to Bush Junior's electoral fund
and made its air transport available to him…
But everything has an end. It
just required focusing on Enron's "activities" and the company, that had been
considered a model, goes under and it shares drop from 90 dollars to 26 cents.
Enron had escaped controls for a long time, but is now being investigated by
SEC, the police of American markets. But we should not be naïve - we will never
know the whole truth about Enron (too many interests are involved!), because
that would require telling the whole truth about deregulation.
It certainly
seems increasingly obvious - deregulation brings increased prices for consumers
everywhere: from California to Europe, via Belgium and Spain, where the debt of
electricity companies is increasing, prices are not dropping and cuts are
increasing, because of lack of investment in networks and because of
acquisitions abroad.
Let's be clear: deregulating energy enables a few to
fill their pockets by plundering national heritage and making people pay a lot
for access to energy.
The "Right to Energy" association fights against such
practices and demands access to energy for all. Recognition of such a right
would render illegal speculative activities of Enron and so many other brokers
operating in the energy sector. It would also put an end to plundering public
wealth and recognize that Energy is not like other commodities, but an
unavoidable element of life and development for all.
(Courtesy IEMO's
Newsletter)
