David Thomas: “I agree with the point of view of the Senator from North Dakota in terms of transparency, antimanipulation, and…”

“I agree with the point of view of the Senator from North Dakota in terms of transparency, antimanipulation, and enforcement. Actually, this subtitle deals with that issue. Certainly, there is no reason why we should not deal with it. It directs FERC to issue rules to establish an electronic information system to provide information on the availability and the price of wholesale energy and transmission services, to ensure such information is treated confidentially, and prohibit the filing of false information regarding the price of wholesale electricity and availability of capacity. These are some of the items that were used in the California/west coast experience. It prohibits round-trip trading, which was one of the issues Enron was most involved with apparently--at least that is what they were accused of doing. This subtitle expands who can file complaints in a case which is the subject of a FERC investigation. It deals with this whole question of what happened in California. It amends the Power Act to refund effective dates of filing. Many of these items in this chapter were designed to deal with the issue in California. I think it would be a mistake to seek to blame the California crisis solely on manipulation.”