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Dick Cheney spoke to Sonia on Enron
The White House disclosed on Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to the Indian government officials last year about Enron Corp`s investment in a $2.9 billion power project, but said that his goal was to minimise US exposure to losses in the idle plant.
The White House disclosed on Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to the Indian government officials last year about Enron Corp's investment in a $2.9 billion power project, but said that his goal was to minimise US exposure to losses in the idle plant.
The White House said that Cheney's outreach on behalf of Enron, President George W. Bush's biggest political patron, was justified since the Dabhol power project was financed in part through the US government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
OPIC is a taxpayer-backed agency that provides "political risk" insurance to help US companies invest in developing nations.
"The US taxpayers have an exposure to risk and loss through OPIC," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "It's not uncommon for (companies) to have exposures which do require contacts between American officials and government officials in other countries to minimize those risks to taxpayers." The White House has sought to distance itself from the widening scandal surrounding Enron, the energy-trading giant that collapsed in the autumn and filed for bankruptcy on December 2 after trying to solicit aid from the Bush administration. The White House says it did nothing to help the Houston-based company avert collapse as it monitored the situation.
Enron was Bush's biggest political backer heading into the 2000 presidential election. The company made about $623,000 in contributions to his campaigns since 1993, when he was raising money for his first Texas gubernatorial race, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The Dabhol power plant, about 250 km south of Mumbai, has been idle since June due to a tariff dispute with its sole customer, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), the government-run monopoly distributor of electric power in the area. Enron owns 65 per cent of Dabhol, General Electric Co and construction firm Bechtel Corp each own 10 per cent and MSEB the remaining 15 per cent. OPIC was one of the many multilateral funding agencies that lent money to Dabhol.
The plant was almost completed when construction on the 1,444-MW second phase was halted after the MSEB fell $240 million behind in payments for power provided. The 740-MW first phase began operating in May 1999.
According to New York's Daily News, Cheney tried to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from the giant energy project. Citing government documents, the Daily News said Cheney mentioned Enron in a June 27 meeting with Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the main opposition Congress party.
The documents showed the National Security Council had given OPIC high hopes that Bush would raise the issue with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a November 9 meeting, the newspaper reported. But a November 8 e-mail, whose sender and recipient are blacked out, said, "President Bush cannot talk about Dabhol."
White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, who was previously paid $50,000 a year as an Enron adviser, also "was advised that he could not discuss Dabhol," according to the Daily News. Bureau Report
OPIC is a taxpayer-backed agency that provides "political risk" insurance to help US companies invest in developing nations.
"The US taxpayers have an exposure to risk and loss through OPIC," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "It's not uncommon for (companies) to have exposures which do require contacts between American officials and government officials in other countries to minimize those risks to taxpayers." The White House has sought to distance itself from the widening scandal surrounding Enron, the energy-trading giant that collapsed in the autumn and filed for bankruptcy on December 2 after trying to solicit aid from the Bush administration. The White House says it did nothing to help the Houston-based company avert collapse as it monitored the situation.
Enron was Bush's biggest political backer heading into the 2000 presidential election. The company made about $623,000 in contributions to his campaigns since 1993, when he was raising money for his first Texas gubernatorial race, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The Dabhol power plant, about 250 km south of Mumbai, has been idle since June due to a tariff dispute with its sole customer, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), the government-run monopoly distributor of electric power in the area. Enron owns 65 per cent of Dabhol, General Electric Co and construction firm Bechtel Corp each own 10 per cent and MSEB the remaining 15 per cent. OPIC was one of the many multilateral funding agencies that lent money to Dabhol.
The plant was almost completed when construction on the 1,444-MW second phase was halted after the MSEB fell $240 million behind in payments for power provided. The 740-MW first phase began operating in May 1999.
According to New York's Daily News, Cheney tried to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from the giant energy project. Citing government documents, the Daily News said Cheney mentioned Enron in a June 27 meeting with Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the main opposition Congress party.
The documents showed the National Security Council had given OPIC high hopes that Bush would raise the issue with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a November 9 meeting, the newspaper reported. But a November 8 e-mail, whose sender and recipient are blacked out, said, "President Bush cannot talk about Dabhol."
White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, who was previously paid $50,000 a year as an Enron adviser, also "was advised that he could not discuss Dabhol," according to the Daily News. Bureau Report