The Year the Texas Legislature Changed the Energy Game Forever
In 1999 lawmakers radically altered the electricity marketplace. We can all breathe easier—literally—because of it.
Enron was a Houston-based pipeline company turned commodities and financial services monolith that went bankrupt amid great scandal in 2001. It’s the canary in the coal mine for anyone who wants to understand subsequent US financial crises. And it’s a fun harbringer to study because Enron’s implosion involved nice helpings of sex, corporate intrigue, greed, and stupidity, all of which help the complicated math and nearly incomprehensible lingo go down. Hints of the disaster to come could be found in a short piece on the collapse of the water subsidiary, Azurix, in 2000, followed by our story that ran in November 2001 that detailed the chaos within the company that led to its December crash. As Mimi Swartz wrote in “How Enron Blew it”: “The Enron story reflects the culture that drove American business at the end of the twentieth century. Like the high-tech companies it emulated, Enron was going to reinvent the American business model and, in turn, the American economy. Maybe it was natural that this Brave New World also produced a culture that was based on absolutes: not just the old versus the new, but the best versus the mediocre, the risk takers versus the complacent—those who could see the future versus those who could not. The key was investing in the right kind of intellectual capital. With the best and the brightest, a company couldn’t possibly go wrong.”
In 1999 lawmakers radically altered the electricity marketplace. We can all breathe easier—literally—because of it.
When the go-go Houston corporation collapsed in spectacular fashion, it became a punch line across the nation. But some of the bad guys had the last laugh.
When Texas Monthly covered Enron's fall in 2001, we wondered if the company was an outlier or the new normal. There's no longer any question.
Twenty years have passed since the notoriously corrupt energy-trading company collapsed. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge that it wasn’t all bad for Texas.
On this week’s National Podcast of Texas, the author of ’Superpower’ outlines the state’s pioneering role in America’s transition toward fossil fuels alternatives.
When the company collapsed, the former CEO went to prison for fraud and insider trading. Turns out, he was just ahead of his time.
Sherron Watkins, fifteen years later.
Since he finished his prison sentence, Andy Fastow, Enron’s disgraced CFO, has been quietly trying to make amends. But is the public ready to accept his apology?
From Donald Chambers founding the Bandidos in Houston to Gordon Granger reading General Orders No. 3 in Galveston
The Supreme Court rejected the ex-Enron CEO's latest appeal, a move that is hardly surprising to most Houstonians.
Ten years ago this month, the company that once dominated Houston collapsed in a cloud of debt. But its ghost still haunts the city—and America.
The debut of Enron, the play, on Broadway might be the perfect time to settle a question that’s been bothering Houston: Does Jeff Skilling need a new trial?
Kenny, we hardly knew ye. Okay, maybe we knew you too well. The jury, at least, seems to have pegged you just right. You too, Skilling.
Scenes from the Enron reality show.
The fairy tale is long over, but reality hasn’t necessarily set in.
What has Sherron Watkins' life been like since she exposed the financial shenanigans of her colleagues at Enron? Well, she may be one of Time's "Persons of the Year," but she's not necessarily one of Houston's.
The real Enron scandal.
Enron, rest in pieces.
The Houston-based energy giant put the pursuit of profits ahead of all other corporate goals, which fostered a climate of workaholism and paranoia. And that was only part of the problem.
The Texas stock to avoid right now.
The best Texas CEOs.