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HavenWorks.com/energy/archive/2002 |
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- Energy Archive
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ARCHIVES NEWS Energy News History Archives Energy Archives |
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- "Halliburton
settles asbestos claims: Company paying about
$4 billion to thousands of victims." ... "The company said at least 75
percent of plaintiffs with pending cases agreed to the settlement." ...
"Representatives for the Houston-based oilfield-services company once led
by Vice President Dick Cheney were in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh
on Wednesday to settle most of the pending asbestos cases against the company
and one of its former subsidiaries." -AP
via -MSNBC
- "Judge
Rebuffs Effort to Obtain Records on Cheney [energy] Task Force."
... "In a case involving bedrock constitutional issues, a federal judge
today threw out a lawsuit brought by an agency of Congress against Vice
President Dick Cheney over the formulation of the administration's energy
policy." ... "Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court found that
Comptroller General David M. Walker, the head of the General Accounting
Office, did not have sufficient standing to sue the vice president." ...
"Mr. Walker had asked the judge to order the White House to reveal the
identities of industry executives who helped the administration develop
its energy policy last year." -By David Stout
-NYTimes via
-AltaVista-News
- "Chavez
threatens state of emergency." ... "President Hugo
Chavez of Venezuela has warned he may declare a state of emergency if disruption
caused by an national strike continues to escalate." ... "In a speech to
supporters in Caracas, Mr Chavez accused his opponents of trying to sabotage
the oil industry, which provides half the government's revenue." ... "Crude
oil production has dropped by up to a sixth of the total national output
since refinery workers and oil tanker crews joined other strikers, threatening
the economic backbone of the world's fifth biggest oil exporter." ... "Analysts
have warned that a shutdown for longer than two days could have a major
impact on US and world oil prices." -BBC/News
ELECTION
2002 - "GOP
in Control: Energy, Taxes and Judges Top List
of Priorities for Republicans." ... "Now, with the GOP making gains in
the House and taking a slight edge in the Senate, Bush is likely to be
able to move ahead with an agenda that includes making deeper cuts in taxes,
an energy bill that could see more national parks opened up to oil exploration
and logging, and a slate of conservative judges whose appointments have
been blocked." ... "The only area where Bush might face a challenge from
the party he carried to victory is his proposal to privatize Social Security,
a plan that lost a lot of its popularity in the collapse of the stock market
that saw many Americans take a hard hit to their retirement hopes."
-ABCNEWS.com
- "Judge
Orders White House Papers' Release: Cheney
Lawyers to Ask Appeals Court to Keep Energy Task Force Records Secret."
... "The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, the plaintiffs in this case, are
two of several groups that have alleged that the administration improperly
met with private officials from the energy industry last year while shaping
its energy policy. Environmental groups say they were largely excluded
from the meetings." ... "The Bush administration has said repeatedly that
the separation of powers doctrine shields those documents from outside
review because they might show the administration's internal, deliberative
process." -By Neely Tucker
-WashingtonPost
- Enron
News - "CHRONOLOGY-
California power crisis investigations." ... "A former
top Enron Corp. electricity trader pleaded guilty Thursday to inflating
prices during the California energy crisis, confirming the suspicions of
state officials who are demanding billions of dollars in refunds." ...
"Timothy Belden, who was employed by Enron as the head of its western power
trading unit in Portland, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy
to commit wire fraud, federal prosecutors said."
-Reuters via -Fortune
- "Jakarta links
Bali bombing to Al Qaeda: Security boosted
at plants of U.S. energy companies." ... "In the government's most explicit
acknowledgment that Al Qaeda is operating in Indonesia, the defense minister
linked the terrorist group Monday to a nightclub explosion Saturday that
killed and wounded hundreds of people on the resort island of Bali." ...
"President George W. Bush, linking the bombing of a French oil tanker off
Yemen and the shooting of two U.S. Marines in Kuwait, said Monday that
the Bali explosion appeared to be part of "a pattern of attack" by Al Qaeda."
... "Australia said Monday it had information linking Al Qaeda to the Bali
bomb blasts, Reuters reported from Bali." -By Seth
Mydans -NYTimes
-IHT.com
- "Judge
Concludes Energy Company Drove Up Prices." ... "An
administrative law judge concluded today that the El Paso Corporation illegally
helped to drive up prices for natural gas in California during the state's
power crisis in 2000 and 2001, the first time any federal regulatory official
has determined there was widespread manipulation of energy supplies." ...
"Executives at El Paso, which is based in Houston, said the ruling "is
unsupported by the evidence and is inconsistent with FERC policy."" -By
Richard A. Oppel, Jr. with Lowell Bergman -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
- 
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- "War
Could Unshackle Oil in Iraq: U.S. Drillers
Eye Huge Petroleum Pool." ... "A U.S.-led ouster of Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein could open a bonanza for American oil companies long banished from
Iraq, scuttling oil deals between Baghdad and Russia, France and other
countries, and reshuffling world petroleum markets, according to industry
officials and leaders of the Iraqi opposition." ... "The importance of
Iraq's oil has made it potentially one of the administration's biggest
bargaining chips in negotiations to win backing from the U.N. Security
Council and Western allies for President Bush's call for tough international
action against Hussein. All five permanent members of the Security Council
-- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- have international
oil companies with major stakes in a change of leadership in Baghdad."
-By Dan Morgan and David B. Ottaway
-WashingtonPost
Enron
News - "Enron
probe looks at alleged bribery: Federal prosecutors
examine overseas operations." ... "Federal prosecutors are investigating
whether Enron Corp. for years bribed foreign government officials to win
contracts for its far-flung operations abroad, underscoring the sweep of
the government’s probe into Enron’s collapse." ... "The Justice Department’s
Enron Task Force is examining the energy company’s overseas operations
for possible criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
according to government officials and lawyers close to the case. The previously
undisclosed inquiry is examining Enron’s efforts to win foreign pipeline,
power and water-privatization projects, some reaching as far back as the
mid-1990s, they said." -By John R. Wilke
-WSJ.com via -MSNBC
TX
- Enron
News - "Texas
regulators move to fine Enron subsidiary." ... ""The
Public Utility Commission of Texas moved to fine Enron $7million as part
of the agency's investigation into the over-scheduling of power by several
companies last fall." ... "Enron, which filed bankruptcy Dec. 2, has 30
days to respond, PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said Monday."
-By Natalie Gott -AP
via -Boston/Globe
Enron
News - "Suppliers
deny using Enron tactics: Power firms answer
FERC questions." ... "Enron's traders used 10 questionable trading strategies
to, among other things, create phantom congestion on California's power
transmission, ship electricity out of the state to circumvent state price
caps and submit unrealistic power demand schedules during the crisis, all
at a time when California was scrambling just to keep the lights on." -By
David Ivanovich -HoustonChronicle.com
Enron
News - "Enron
Memos Fuel Inquiry of Power Pricing: Documents
lend credence to claims the [California] state's [energy] crisis was at
least partly manufactured." -By Tim Reiterman and
Nancy Rivera-Brooks -LAtimes
