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Getting the Energy Facts Right

By Bern Beecham, printed in the PADaily News, May 22, 2005

The Palo Alto Daily News’ Sunday, May 8 editorial regarding the City’s settlement with
Enron included factual errors and unsupported conclusions that may have confused
or misled the public. Indeed, errors in the editorial relate to facts that had been accurately
reported in the Daily itself, presented in public meetings, and/or explained by City staff, Utilities
Advisory Commission members or myself.

The editorial’s primary thrust was that the City has not been forthcoming about the Enron
settlement negotiations. In this, the editorial is correct; the New York bankruptcy court imposed
a gag order on all parties engaged in settlement negotiations with Enron. If the New York
bankruptcy court were to remove the gag order, I would be the first to discuss it with the Daily
and all who have an interest.

But the editorial seems to expand this limited confidentiality to assert that “everything had been
done in secret” and offers that “the public should know the specifics” of the decision “to buy
energy from Enron.”

In fact, the entire process of buying from Enron was public. In 2001, the Palo Alto Daily News
itself carried a 1000 word column, which I authored, describing the background of the purchase
(this column is available at www.beecham.org). But more than that, the City held seven public
meetings, at the City Council, Council committee and Utilities Advisory Commission,
discussing our energy situation, the energy crisis and the need for supplemental electricity
contracts. Nothing about the procurement of the Enron contract or the contract itself was secret
or kept from the public.