Leaked documents spark debate over PGE deal:

Leaked documents spark debate over PGE deal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND -- The leak of documents suggesting that Texas Pacific Group simply wants to make a quick profit on the purchase of Enron subsidiary Portland General Electric will not have any effect on the sale decision for the last remaining Enron asset, the state's chief utility regulator says.

But opponents of the PGE buyout say the potential for Texas Pacific to make up to $1.2 billion on the proposed $2.35 billion deal -- or better than a 50 percent profit -- will have some effect on the outcome, either way.

The documents obtained by Portland's weekly newspaper Willamette Week were part of a Texas Pacific analysis of the buyout proposal, code-named "Project Tahoe."

The Portland weekly newspaper reported in its regular Wednesday edition that the documents outlined Texas Pacific plans to make big cuts in PGE staff to reap an estimated $800 million to $1.2 billion profit on the utility by selling it within five years.

Lee Beyer, chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission, said Wednesday the regulatory agency asked for the analysis and it will be part of the final decision on the sale.

He dismissed criticism that the commission should have made the confidential documents public.

"We went into this with eyes wide open," Beyer said. "It's not like there hasn't been a pretty full and open discussion about this issue. If anybody thinks we're being fooled, you'd have to be sort of like the three blind mice."

Texas Pacific requested confidentiality when it submitted the documents to the commission, arguing they could reveal trade secrets.

The documents were made available to "intervenors" in the PUC regulatory hearings who oppose the Texas Pacific buyout proposal with the condition the material be kept confidential.

Willamette Week said it obtained the documents from one of the intervenors but did not identify which one.