Enron implosion burns 401K funds for utility subsidiary

摘要

Wherever you look there is shrapnel from the Enron disaster: executives pleading the Fifth before Congress, laid off employees scoffing at the "emotional" interview with former CEO Ken Lay's wife, even an unopened Enron ethics manual being sold on eBay. It's an Enron world―although admittedly not in the way many executives and investors expected just a few years ago. But the Enron battle damage isn't confined to the sharply defined energy corporation. It's being felt all the way down the line, including at Portland General Electric (PGE), an Enron subsidiary utility. Enron brought PGE into the corporate fold in 1997 in a $2 billion merger, and although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently approved PGE's sale to Northwest Natural Gas Co., PGE is more than a way to provide cash to pay the bankrupt corporation's creditors.