Jay Inslee: “there are some outrages that are so gross and offensive that even if it takes years to right them, we should do that…”

“there are some outrages that are so gross and offensive that even if it takes years to right them, we should do that, and one of those outrages is the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001 on the West Coast of the United States. But in fact there are two outrages involving the energy crisis in the Western United States. The first outrage is that Enron and various other traders gouged over hundreds of millions of dollars from consumers in the western United States. But the second and perhaps equal outrage is that the Federal Government, under the Bush administration, has been wholly ineffectual in getting back the money that has been stolen from consumers in the Western United States. Today and the last few days we have now discovered over 2,000 hours of taped conversations between Enron traders and others that clearly show the way that they stole hundreds of millions of dollars from consumers in the Western United States. Here is one trader, Tim Beldon, who since pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges, who said, ``Grandmothers were taken at the tune of a million bucks or two a day.''”