THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release:

Monday, January 7, 2002

GREENS URGE CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE BUSH TIES WITH

ENRON, CITING POSSIBLE WHITE HOUSE AND CORPORATE

COLLUSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Leaders in the Green Party of the

United States urge Congress to extend its

investigation of Enron to the company's ties to the

Bush administration, in the wake of revelations that

Enron cheated employees and misled energy consumers

and investors as the company went bankrupt in late

2001.

"Enron represents the exercise of corporate power at

its worst," said Anita Rios, a member of the party's

national steering committee and an Ohio Green

activist. "On one hand, President Bush and his

advisors and supporters preach privatization of Social

Security and converting it into personal investment in

Wall Street securities. On the other hand, his

leading corporate backer, Enron, allegedly bilked its

own employees out of their invested retirement money

and defrauded investors."

As the Houston-based energy company collapsed in 2001,

Enron's employees and retirees with 401K plans, who

had been prohibited from selling their Enron stock,

lost their life savings. At the same time, the upper

hierarchy of company officials dumped about $1 billion

of their own stock as Enron filed for bankruptcy on

December 2, 2001.

"Advisors to President Bush who have connections with

Enron have helped engineer economic policy, based on

the principle that deregulation, tax breaks, tort

reform and other handouts for wealthy citizens and

corporations are good for America," said Ben Manski, a

Wisconsin Green who is also a steering committee

member. "It's more than a case of undue influence

from energy lobbies over the White House. With the

Bush presidency, the petrochemical corporations run

the White House."

Greens cite the following reasons for expanding the

investigation by the Senate's governmental affairs

committee and other congressional committees:

*** Enron chairman Ken Lay -- President Bush's

principle financial backer since he first went into

politics -- and Enron have donated $2 million to

George W. Bush since 1993; a company memo in 2000

shows that Enron pressured employees to donate heavily

to the Bush campaign. Enron donated more than any

other energy firm to the Bush campaign. Mr. Lay's

wife donated $100,000 for Bush Inauguration

festivities. Mr. Lay was the only energy executive to

meet alone with Vice President Dick Cheney while the

latter was drawing up a new national energy policy in

secret. According to a New York Times article in May

2001, Mr. Lay "had access to the team writing the

White House's energy report, which embraces several

initiatives and issues dear to Enron." (Mr. Lay also

sits on the board of directors of pharmaceutical giant

Eli Lilly, along with President Bush's father.)

*** Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, sold

over $60,000 (perhaps as much as $250,000) in Enron

stock in 2001 after exposure for conflict of interest.

Mr. Rove and Mr. Lay are known to have frequently

discussed energy policy. Enron paid Lawrence B.

Lindsay, President Bush's top economic adviser,

$50,000 in consulting fees in 2000. Trade

Representative Robert Zoellick went straight from

Enron's payroll to his federal job; Army Secretary

Thomas White Jr. is a former Enron executive and has

held an estimated $50-$100 million in Enron stock.

*** Enron, a power broker in natural gas, wholesale

electricity, water, and other needs and services, has

lobbied extensively for utility deregulation,

especially the right to price-gouge customers and to

profit from the volubility of energy stocks. The

California legislature is currently investigating

whether Enron and other companies deliberately

manipulated the state's electricity supply during the

recent California energy crisis in order to drive up

prices.

*** Enron persuaded Texas Governor Bush to exempt

energy firms from regulation, and to corral support

for export credit agencies that would ensure financial

handouts and bailouts when U.S. companies undertake

risky international projects in developing nations.

*** According to Enron investigator Senator Carl

Levin, Enron engaged in a "massive shell game with

multiple layers of conflicts of interest. One such

conflict which apparently triggered the collapse was

the fact that debt was transferred to paper

partnerships in which Enron officials had personal

financial interests to make Enron look financially

better." The accounting firm Arthur Anderson may have

played a role in concealing such practices during

audits. The Green Party insists that the public also

deserves to know how much Bush Administration

officials may have known about these improprieties.

"All Americans should be outraged at President Bush's

disdain for executive accountability," said Tom

Sevigny of Connecticut, another steering committee

member.

"The President's Enron connections, his refusal to

comply with the General Accounting Office's demand for

information on how the administration crafted its

Energy Plan, his invocation of executive privilege to

block a congressional subpoena necessary to

investigate FBI abuses, his decision to withdraw from

the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty without

consulting Congress, his pressure on Congress to grant

the President 'Fast Track' authority to determine

trade policy with no Congressional or public

oversight, the gutting of constitutional protections

by Attorney General John Ashcroft -- these are attacks

on the checks and balances that are supposed to make

the U.S. a democracy. What's equally shameful is the

willingness of many Republicans and Democrats to

indulge this power grab."

Since 1990, Enron has made $5.8 million in

contributions to both Republican and Democratic

politicians, according to the Center for Responsive

Politics.

###