Washington — Vice President Dick Cheney sought to help Enron Corp. last year in a multimillion-dollar dispute over a power plant in India, but his only goal was to advance U.S. interests, the White House said Friday.
The vice president's actions documented in retrieved White House e-mails brought no immediate allegations of wrongdoing, but a spokesman for Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee called for more details of Cheney's advocacy for the Houston-based energy trading company.
"This deserves a closer look," said Phil Schiliro, chief of staff for Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the panel's top Democrat.
It is not unusual for administration officials to promote U.S. business interests when traveling overseas, as Cheney was when he broached the power plant issue to a leading politician in India. But Enron's financial collapse late last year has focused attention on the extensive political ties between the Bush administration and the company.
Enron executives contacted Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans last autumn about the company's financial troubles, but the Cabinet members have said they did not attempt to intervene on its behalf.
Cheney's involvement in the power plant dispute occurred last June, before signs of Enron's problems had surfaced. Enron owns a 65 percent interest in a $2.9 billion natural gas-fueled power generator built in Dabhol in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The General Electric Co. and the Bechtel Corp. each own 10 percent, while the Maharashtra State Electricity Board owns the remaining 15 percent.
The electricity board fell behind in payments for the plant and Enron launched arbitration proceedings last April. Enron claims it is owed $63.9 million.
Also at stake in the dispute are more than $300 million in loans and risk insurance put up by the Overseas Private Investment Corp., a federal agency that provides political risk insurance to help U.S. companies invest in developing countries.
Cheney inquired about the status of the plant when he met on June 27 with Sonia Gandhi, head of the Congress Party, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday. The party is the leading opposition to the current Indian regime.
One of the White House e-mails, written by a National Security Council aide on June 28, said: "Good news is that the veep mentioned Enron in his meeting with Sonia Gandhi yesterday."
Fleischer said that Cheney, in bringing up the matter, was simply doing his job.
"It is an important project to create jobs in America," Fleischer said.
He also noted that three of President Clinton's Commerce secretaries Ronald Brown, Mickey Kantor and William Daley tried to promote the Dabhol energy project.
Meanwhile, Friday Texas' top utility regulator, Max Yzaguirre, a former Enron executive, resigned.
Yzaguirre led the Texas Public Utility Commission in its initiative to deregulate the electricity market. He has been under attack for failing to detail his Enron duties on his application for the state post.
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