Jeff Bingaman: “I commend her for offering the amendment and focusing the attention of the Senate on this important set of issues. The…”

“I commend her for offering the amendment and focusing the attention of the Senate on this important set of issues. The electricity title is perhaps the most complex part of this entire Energy bill. We recognize and understand there is a lot of complexity in writing a provision or a title that governs the regulation of electricity. However, the issue that the Cantwell amendment deals with is not complicated. It is extremely straightforward. Frankly, I am at a loss to understand why we cannot get agreement between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to go ahead and close this loophole which has become so clear to everyone in the country who has paid any attention to energy prices and energy markets in recent years. Just a year ago, newspaper stories had almost daily headlines about power marketers manipulating the market in California and in the Northwest States, Washington and Oregon, in particular. Unfortunately, it seems something has been forgotten since those stories were written a year ago. Senator Cantwell has outlined very dramatically and effectively the parade of these schemes devised to defraud utilities--and ultimately to defraud consumers--that have resulted in consumers paying substantially more every month when they pay their utility bills.”