Employees

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling “lied over and over and over again” to investors and employees “through accounting tricks, fiction, hocus-pocus, trickery, misleading statements, half-truths, omissions and outright lies,” federal prosecutor Kathryn H. Ruemmler told a packed courtroom on Monday during closing arguments in the 16-week-long case that could send the two former chiefs to prison for dozens of years.

Challenged by the defense team on Monday, a former Enron Broadband Services (EBS) executive acknowledged that he, too, lied to employees, investors and investigators with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before making a deal to cooperate in the trial of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

Two former executives and an ex-energy trader for Duke Energy Corp.’s Houston-based trading unit pleaded innocent Wednesday to charges that they schemed to secure bonuses by fraudulently manipulating energy trading profits. All were released on separate $100,000 bonds.

TXU Energy, the largest retail electric provider (REP) in Texas, announced last week it will lay off about 20% of its workforce, or 65 employees, in an effort to trim costs. The news follows the resignation in late November by a top executive at Reliant Energy Inc., the state’s second largest REP.

Entering the sixth day on Tuesday of force majeure conditions at all points on the Sabine Pipe Line system, including the Henry Hub, the company said its employees were successful in conducting visual surveillance of the system’s accessible portions. The company was forced to call a force majeure last Thursday due to uncertainty surrounding Hurricane Rita’s projected path.

Williams said it agreed to pay $55 million to settle a class action lawsuit Monday. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are former employees who participated in the company’s 401(k) retirement plan during a period that began prior to July 24, 2000.

In a letter to Unocal Corp. employees Wednesday concerning the competing acquisition offers from Chevron Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC), CEO Chuck Williamson said that “at this time, our board continues to recommend approval of the Chevron proposal.” However, he noted that Unocal’s management team “must evaluate the competing China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC) proposal” so that the company’s shareholders “understand the comparative merits of the two offers.”

Atmos Energy is planning a complete rebranding of TXU Gas Co. on Feb. 1. The Texas utility company, its customers’ bills, employees’ uniforms, vehicles, buildings, forms, stationery, pipeline markers and website will all will have the new name Atmos Energy. “We want the transition for TXU Gas customers to be smooth and transparent,” said Atmos CEO Robert W. Best. “We purposively have delayed making major changes to ensure stability in the operations and to prepare for rebranding the business under our own name.” Atmos completed its purchase of TXU Gas and began serving customers on Oct. 1, 2004. The transaction made Atmos Energy the largest gas distribution company in the nation, serving about 3.1 million utility customers in more than 1,500 communities in 12 states . TXU Gas’ operations include service to 1.5 million utility customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and 550 other communities across northern Texas. The company also operates one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipelines in the state.

The nation’s largest public employee pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), Monday agreed to pursue part of a so-called “Green Wave” environmental investment initiative by seeking to reduce by 20% over the next five years the energy use in the pension fund’s $7.9 billion investment in 144 million square feet of real estate holdings.