Right after new tapes came out with ENRON Ripping off the Western part of the Country

The Bush administration called Monday for a major change in the way federal power suppliers charge their customers -- basing rates on market prices at the time rather than the cost of producing the electricity. Western lawmakers from both parties vowed to block the proposal, which they said could raise electric power rates in the Pacific Northwest by as much as 20 percent. Besides the Portland, Ore.-based Bonneville Power Administration, which supplies power to four states in the Pacific Northwest, the plan also would affect three other regional agencies that supply power to dozens of states: the Colorado-based Western Area Power Administration; Georgia-based Southeastern Power Administration; and Oklahoma-based Southwestern Power Administration. ...The proposal immediately faced trouble in Congress. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called it "politically untenable," adding: "Every once in a while, administrations of either party come up with this idea, and I won't support it." Link