Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, convicted in a criminal case stemming from his company’s collapse, is appealing his conviction today to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Skilling became well known – along with former chairman Ken Lay – as the face of Enron, which was one of the largest corporate collapses in American business history.
But Skilling’s role in pushing for energy deregulation – in Connecticut and across New England – is less known.
Skilling was actually one of the featured players at a New England governors’ conference in December 1996 at the upscale Equinox hotel in Vermont that was attended by former Gov. John G. Rowland and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. The long-ago conference was covered at the time by The Hartford Courant, and Skilling stood out that day as someone pushing very hard for energy deregulation.
A series of governors met with more than 100 utility regulators, lobbyists, and government leaders to talk about the still-new concept of electricity deregulation – a highly complicated subject that was still in its infancy in 1996.
The most aggressive proponent that day, listed among the “special guests,” was Skilling. Not well known nationally at the time, Skilling urged the governors to move as quickly as possible into the bold new world of electricity competition.
“Every day we delay [deregulation], we’re costing consumers a lot of money,” Skilling told Rowland and the other governors. “It can be done quickly. The key is to get legislation done fast.”
Fourteen years ago, Skilling was unknown outside the small, insular world of utility insiders and Enron corporate headquarters in Houston. Today, the former chief executive officer of Enron sits in a prison cell after being found guilty of 19 counts of securities fraud, conspiracy, lying to auditors, and insider trading in one of the biggest corporate scandals in American history.
Contacted years after the conference by The Courant, both Rowland and Dean said they could not recall that Skilling was there. Dean asked, “Do you know how many conferences I attend?”
But Skilling’s words that day in Vermont were part of the growing trend that was starting to sweep the country in the push toward deregulation. Connecticut’s version passed in April 1998 when the deregulation bill was passed by votes of 126-17 in the state House of Representatives and 27-7 in the Senate.
The latest AP version is at http://www.courant.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-supreme-court-skilling-appeal,0,4227896.story